


Kotaro Star

by earthinmywindow



Category: Eyeshield 21
Genre: Adventure, Band Fic, Canon Compliant, F/M, Love Triangles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-11
Updated: 2012-11-12
Packaged: 2017-11-18 10:52:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 78,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earthinmywindow/pseuds/earthinmywindow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Kotaro becomes the lead singer in Akaba's band they find unexpected popularity in the United States. But their American tour doesn't go as planned. Accidents, bad decisions, and treachery abound as Kotaro, Julie, and Akaba find themselves on an incredible adventure halfway around the world. As secrets come out and emotions are put on the line, will this experience bind the trio together or tear them apart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Free Talk: This is another old and still unfinished fic that I originally posted on fanfiction.net. Recently I did a bit of revising to all the chapters to make the story canon compliant (the manga hadn't ended yet when I first wrote it) and I've added new chapters. So this fic isn't exactly the same as what is on ff.net, just for the record.
> 
> Also, I used my preferred romanizations for Kotaro and Julie in this fic.

 

Track 1: Heat of the Moment

* * *

  
  
"My ID number is ninety-nine! Same as my number on the Spiders! That's got to be a sign! Don't you think it's a sign? Julie?"  
  
"I think it's just a coincidence," Julie said cautiously. She watched his lower lip puff out in a small pout at her lack of support and she sighed. "You studied hard, Kotaro. And you did great on all your practice exams. That's what gets you into college, not magic numbers."  
  
But despite what she'd just said, her she unclenched sweaty hands and pressed them palm-to-palm as she silently prayed. _God, Buddha, Grandma in heaven, please let him pass this test. He worked so hard._  
  
Kotaro seemed significantly less anxious. In fact, he was downright brimming with confidence. "Well I still think it's a sign," he insisted. "So can you see the results yet? Do you see ninety-nine on there?"  
  
"My vision is no better than yours," she said, squinting in spite of her statement. "We're just going to have to wait until the crowd thins out a little and we can get closer. Just remember, if you don't…" Her words of caution were cut off mid-sentence when an elbow crashed into her back so hard that it knocked the sunglasses off her head.  
  
"Hey watch it, buddy!" Kotaro barked. His arm hooked protectively around her back. "Alright Julie, we're not just gonna stand around while you get manhandled. I'll get us to the front of the pack the smart way."  
  
"No, I'm fine. Really I…" Her protests were drowned out by the grunts and growls of the people he squeezed and shoved past as he pulled her through the throng. Apparently 'manhandling' was okay as long as he was the one doling it out. To his credit, though, he did manage to deliver her through the crowd without her getting bumped even once.  
  
"Alright, I can see the exam results," he said eagerly. "Let's both look for my number."  
  
Julie's stomach twisted like a dishtowel being wrung out. The situation was unfolding in an eerily similar fashion to the last four university entrance results. Each time, Kotaro had been absolutely certain that he'd passed, claiming he made smart work of that school's easy test. And bafflingly, each failure to matriculate made him even more convinced of his prospects for the next school.  
  
But there were no more prospects after this. He had only taken the entrance exams for five universities and he'd already failed four.  
  
She crossed four pairs of fingers, two on each hand.  
  
"Ah, there!" He exclaimed. "Ninety-seven, ninety-eight… one hundred…" His voice stopped and his arm on Julie's back went floppy and fell off.  
  
She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.  
  
Kotaro's dark grey eyes blinked at the digital screen displaying all the numbers that weren't his. "I failed…" he uttered in a numb monotone. "I didn't get into any university."  
  
After a few swallows to wet her throat, Julie finally was able to speak. "You'll study even harder and take the tests again next year. All you need is a few more months to prepare." Her words of solace probably would have been more convincing if she actually believed in them.  
  
Sawai Julie knew damn well that Kotaro’s test-taking troubles had nothing to do with a lack of studying. That boy studied his butt off for these exams. And he really was smart, not like his favorite word for describing his own perceived coolness, but intelligent. Well, at least smart enough for a less-than-top-tier university.  
  
No, it wasn't about studying or intelligence. It was all about nerves, the handicap he wasn't even vaguely aware of. But he didn't need her to lecture him about it right now. Right now he needed a distraction.  
  
She pulled out her cell phone and speed-dialed a number. "Hey, it's me. Can you meet us somewhere? As long as it's some place fun. It… it's kind of an emergency. Really? A new karaoke bar just a block away from Bando? That sounds good. Yeah. Okay, see you there."  
  
Closing the phone, she turned optimistic eyes to Kotaro. He was still staring at the acceptance results, absolutely silent. A quiet Kotaro was not a good sign. "Come on," she gently urged, fingers clutching the sleeve of his jacket. "Let's go to the karaoke bar and just have fun. Then tomorrow we can make a plan for how you're going to pass those exams next spring."  
  
His eyes looked down at her and blinked in astonishment. "Wait… You mean you and me at a karaoke bar together? Just the two of us? Like… a date?"  
  
There was a shimmer of hope on his face that she hated having to extinguish, especially when just moments ago he'd looked so desolate. A small sigh escaped her lips. "Like as friends, silly," she said. "Besides, it won't be just the two of us. I asked Akaba to join us."  
  
"What?" he squawked in dismay. "Why'd you have to go and invite that guitar-obsessed jerk? I don't want him to share in my humiliation."  
  
Julie rolled her eyes, exasperated. "You _still_ can't acknowledge that you and Akaba are friends?"  
  
"I can," he said with a childish pout. "I just don't see why he always has to tag along any time we do anything." His eyes looked away from her and a vague hint of pink tinged his cheeks. His voice became softer. "Why can't it ever be just the two of us?"  
  
"What are you talking about?" she asked, ignoring that her heart was pumping a few extra beats per minute. "It's just the two of us right now, isn't it?"  
  
Kotaro frowned. "Checking test results doesn't count."  
  
"Oh don't pout like that," she said, though she couldn’t help smiling at the cuteness of his expression. "I think Akaba is a good influence on you. He's calm and cool and he balances your hotheaded personality well. And he's very kind. Don't forget that he's the one who recommended you for the all-star Japanese team."  
  
Kotaro let out a snort of derision. "Cool? Kind? If you think Akaba is so great then maybe you should just go out with him." His voice was thick with sarcasm and Julie didn't feel like dignifying it with a response, so she started to walk away. "Wait!" he called, hurrying after her. "You do know I was just kidding, right? Right? Don't go out with Akaba!"  
  
She didn't slow down for him, not out of spite but simply because she knew his long legs would catch up with her quickly enough. "You're so strange," she chuckled when he reached her side and adjusted his pace to match hers.  
  
The fact that he could still complain, however unfairly, about Akaba gave her hope that he would be back to normal in no time.

 

…

  
"Blue Monday?" Even without looking at his face, Julie could tell that Kotaro's nose was scrunched up by the nasally tone he used to read the name of the bar.  
  
"It's got a 1980s theme," she said, her own voice laced with excitement. Even if her tastes strayed more towards the 70s, this place was still a potential goldmine for fashion inspiration. "Let's just go inside. I'm sure he's already waiting."  
  
"You know that doesn't make it seem more appealing," Kotaro grumbled, shoving his hands deep into his pockets.  
  
Julie had to tug him by the elbow to get him through the door. She knew this outing would do him good, even if he didn't realize it yet himself.  
  
The scene inside was like one of her most deliciously campy dreams come to life. Brilliant beams of multi-colored light danced across the floor and up the walls, illuminating vintage posters of Madonna and the Go-Gos and Duran Duran.  
  
Best of all, though, was the vast panoply of retro fashions on both employees and patrons: legwarmers, stonewashed jeans, rubber jewelry, and band t-shirts from every decade that indicated that the bar's music selection was not limited to the 1980s.  
  
This was a prospective fashion designer's heaven. But she couldn't forget why she was here.  
  
"Look at this place! It's amazing! Don't you think, Kotaro?" She looked up at him and was pleased to see his eyes were as wide as hers. It was the perfect setting for distraction.  
  
" Smart light display. You'd think we would’ve heard about a place like this opening so close to…" His wonderment was abruptly extinguished by the appearance of a familiar mop of cherry red hair.  
  
"Hey Julie, Kotaro," Akaba greeted. Paired with a faded Judas Priest t-shirt, he wore a characteristically cool smile and Kotaro chaffed visibly under its glow.  
  
"Where's your stupid guitar?" he sneered.  
  
"Left it at home," Akaba casually replied. "And your comb?"  
  
With an aggressive snort, Kotaro whipped a collapsible comb from the back pocket of his jeans and preened furiously. All Julie could do was rake her fingers down her face at the pathetic display. She knew that all boys were a little bit strange, but the two she had become attached to were downright ridiculous.  
  
"We're here to relax and have fun," she reminded. "Not to fight. Let's get ourselves a room and order some drinks."  
  
Akaba shook his head. "I put our names on the list for a room, but they said the wait could be as long as an hour. This place just opened last week so it's really busy."  
  
Kotaro reacted immediately. "Did you hear that, Julie? Too crowded, I guess we'll have to go someplace else." His hand reached for hers and grasped it tightly.  
  
"Well the good news is that I got us on the list about thirty minutes ago," Akaba informed with just a trace of smugness on his curled lips. "So the wait won't be too long. In the meantime, I managed to find an empty booth in the main room where we can sit. Shall I show you the way?" Although he was talking to both of them, his smile was aimed only at Julie.  
  
"Sounds good," she chirped, but as she started to follow Akaba she found herself towing an anchor. "Okay Kotaro, you either have to let go of my hand or stop dragging your feet."  
  
He chose the latter, moving his legs and leaving his hand where it was. And for some reason, that made her happy. It must’ve been the fact that he wasn't fighting too hard against her attempts to cheer him up, because it certainly couldn’t have had anything to do with how warm his fingers felt coiled around hers.  
  
The booth was in the very back of a huge auditorium, the furthest possible seats from the stage. Akaba smiled apologetically at Julie. "Sorry about the poor location. It was the only spot available."  
  
"It's fine," she said, sitting down on the red leather upholstery. One hand patted the empty space to her right. " Have a seat, Kotaro. After all, we're here to support you."  
  
The way he fell to the bench, as if all his bones had momentarily vanished, indicated that her statement may have sounded a bit too much like pity. "I wish I was old enough to order alcohol," he groaned.  
  
"You don't need that," said Akaba, who now occupied the space to Julie's left. "You just need to readjust your tempo, try approaching your study methods in three-four time."  
  
"Music has got nothing to do with it!" Kotaro snarled.  
  
Akaba didn't blink or flinch, cool as ever. "How about going to cram school?" he asked. "Or hiring a home tutor?"  
  
The corners of Kotaro's lips pulled down into a dramatic scowl. "You're the expert, huh, Mr. Got-into-Saikyo-and-gets-to-play-football-with-the-best-university-team-but-still-is-always-strumming-his-stupid-guitar-Akaba?"  
  
"Is that my new nickname?" Akaba asked with a cocked eyebrow. "I wasn't trying to lecture you. It was just a suggestion. I don't know the reason why you didn't pass your tests."  
  
"Well I don't know either," Kotaro huffed. "I'm smart. I studied hard. Tell him how hard I studied, Julie!"  
  
Her thighs shifted uneasily on the red leather. The whole purpose of this activity was to get his mind off entrance exams. "You did," she said. "You studied very hard. But do you really want to dwell on it? You'll have lots of time to prepare for next year, so you shouldn't worry about it right now."  
  
She watched as Kotaro's knitted eyebrows smoothed out and his shoulders slumped.  
  
"I just don't get it," he sighed. "I don't get how I could have failed every single test I took. They weren't even top-tier schools. It's just so… so…" Frustration was raising the pitch and volume of his voice. The fingers of both his hands forked through and yanked his spiky black tresses. "What did I do wrong?"  
  
The answer to his query was like an itch in Julie's throat that was too low to be relieved by coughing. She didn't want to go into an explanation of what he did wrong without preparation. But seeing him on the verge of tearing out such a fine head of hair left her no other choice.  
  
"Kotaro," she said as delicately as possible. She even reached over and touched his arm very lightly, ensuring that she had his full attention.  
  
"Yeah?" he said softly, almost smiling as his eyes met hers.  
  
"I think I might have an idea why you didn't pass your entrance exams." She chose her words carefully. "You are intelligent. I have no doubt about that. But for some reason, you kind of lose your cool when performing under pressure. Except when in involves kicks, of course."  
  
Clearly puzzled, he wrinkled his nose. "What do you mean I lose my cool?"  
  
Julie squirmed in her seat again, eyes darting to Akaba in a bid for help. But of course he wouldn't know what she was trying to say. He hadn't been Kotaro's friend nearly as long as she had and hadn't seen the full breadth of his behavior off of the football field.  
  
"Well, it's what a lot of people call 'performance anxiety,'" she explained. "Whenever you have to do something that you know really matters, your brain gets totally derailed as soon as you make one mistake and you start acting erratically. Do you remember our third grade play?"  
  
He thought about it for a moment and a proud smile leapt onto his face. "Peter Pan, right? I was the lead and you were Tinkerbell. Very smart casting! I owned that role."  
  
"Are you kidding?" she asked, mouth stretched open in an incredulous grimace. "You forgot one of your lines and with everyone watching you and waiting you kind of…" The memory made her wince. "You freaked out and started kicking over all the scenery."  
  
Kotaro looked at her as if she were a crazy woman. "That never happened," he asserted.  
  
"Yes, it did," she said adamantly. "You destroyed Neverland! You kicked Wendy in the face! See, this is the other thing. You don't even notice that you are freaking out. In your mind, everything went smoothly, when really it was a disaster. Who knows what went on when you were taking that test?"  
  
His lips tightened and his eyebrows twitched slightly as he silently processed what she had just said. It was hard to tell if it was sinking in or if he was still in denial. That brain of his certainly worked in mysterious ways.  
  
"I still don't get it," he finally said, giving Julie the tiring impression that she'd have to explain it all again. "How can I have such dramatic overreactions to performance anxiety and not even realize it?"  
  
"The human brain is a very complex organ," Akaba answered academically, giving his chin a thoughtful scratch to complete the image. "It's possible that yours isn't fully conscious when you have an episode, like people who sleepwalk. Or maybe it just represses the memory of the behavior as soon as it's finished."  
  
"Well gee, 'professor,'" Kotaro snorted. "If you know so much about my brain, how about telling me how to fix it?"  
  
Akaba drew in a slow breath through his teeth and ruffled the back of his red head. "Those were just a couple of my theories. I can't make any conclusions without sufficient data. I've never even seen your so-called performance anxiety."  
  
"He doesn't get it when he's playing football," Julie injected. "Only things he subconsciously doesn't feel confident about, college entrance exams, school plays, singing…"  
  
A loud nasal sound came from Kotaro. "I never sing," he said snootily.  
  
There was a single silent second, a moment when Julie's and Akaba's eyes locked and she somehow knew exactly what he was thinking, exactly what he was about to suggest. Hoping that this momentary mind connection went both ways, she tried to beam her thoughts to him.  
  
 _Don't say it. Don't encourage him. Please, just don't._  
  
But Akaba didn't get the message and turned towards Kotaro. "You could sing now," he told him unworriedly. "We are in a karaoke bar after all. Then I could see for myself just what happens when you get nervous."  
  
"But you don't have to!" Julie added with a pleading edge in her voice. "You've had a rough day, Kotaro. And you don't have to make it worse by embarrassing yourself in front of all these people."  
  
For a moment he just looked stunned. Then he looked angry, brows furrowed and lips frowning. "So you just assume I'll embarrass myself?" he said. "Or are you afraid I'll embarrass you? I'm not even sure I believe what you said about my performance under pressure. After all, I don't remember ever freaking out."  
  
"Well I don't know that you'll act crazy if you try to sing," she responded. "But do you really want to take the risk? There has to be a better way to test this theory." As she spoke, she stared at his face and she noticed something hiding under his veil of anger. Kotaro was hurt by her lack of faith in him. "Go ahead and sing if you want," she sighed, gently smiling. "If you say you'll do fine then I believe you."  
  
All evidence of negative emotion evaporated from his face as soon as she said it. "You really do?"  
  
"Of course," she answered.  
  
"Tell you what," Akaba calmly offered. "I've got my camera with me, so if you'd like I can record your performance, and if you go crazy you can see it for yourself."  
  
"And if I don't, well then it must mean that those un-smart entrance exams were rigged against me," Kotaro declared with a wide grin.  
  
Rather than pointing out the absurdity of her friend's logic, Julie just slapped him (but not too hard) on the shoulder. "Knock 'em dead, Kotaro."  
  
With a stalwart expression on his face, he stood, and as he made his move towards the stage, Akaba slipped a 1000-yen note into his hand. "Just to ensure that you'll get to go next," was the explanation. "And remember, it has to be a song you aren't too familiar with."  
  
Julie swallowed anxiously as she watched Kotaro hand the cash to the manager with no subtlety at all. From the looks of it, though, the bribe worked. The manager smiled and winked at him, and then typed something into the computer that controlled the play list.  
  
"Why do you look so worried?" Akaba asked her. "Didn't you say that you believe in him?"  
  
"I do," she insisted, though her fidgeting and reluctance to make eye contact belied her true feelings. "Well, I really, _really_ want to believe in him. He's a good guy, with a good heart…"  
  
"But?" Akaba urged.  
  
"But he's never sung one note in his life," she continued. "At least not in front of people. He may not remember our third grade play, but I do. I remember how the other kids said mean things behind his back after that, that he was a weirdo and an idiot. This place is packed and I don't want all these people to think those kinds of things about Kotaro when that's not what he's really like."  
  
Akaba flashed an enigmatic smile. "Could it be that you have feelings for the young kicking ace?"  
  
Heat flooded her cheeks. "No! He's my friend, just like you are my friend. I've just known him longer than anyone else so I 'get him' better than most people do. He still manages to surprise me sometimes, though."  
  
After the girl on stage belted out the last refrain of Don't Stop Believin' in broken English, a voice from the speakers announced the next song. "And now, singing Heat of the Moment, Sasaki Kotaro!"  
  
Julie held her breath as Kotaro stepped onto the stage and picked up the microphone. He certainly looked the part of a rock star: tight black jeans sheathing those long legs, dark eyes and wild hair, top three buttons of his shirt undone to reveal that Route 66 necklace dangling over bare flesh.  
  
"You're staring," Akaba whispered coyly.  
  
"Am not," she denied. Of course, it didn't matter how good he looked on stage if he couldn't sing, and she feared what he might do if his performance hit a snag.  
  
The music came on and Kotaro took a breath—even though Julie still couldn't. His lips slid apart and sound came out.  
  
"I never meant to be so bad to you  
One thing I said that I would never do  
One look from you and I would fall from grace  
And that would wipe this smile right from my face…"  
  
The voice he produced was unlike anything Julie had ever heard before, rich and smooth, like coffee-flavored ice cream, and as intoxicating as liquor. Her heart galloped as he made love to the microphone. How did she not know about this? How had he never sung before now?  
  
"Oh my god," Akaba uttered in her ear. The way he said it indicated a shock equal to her own, but she didn't dare shift her gaze to confirm it. "There's no way he's never sung before. Nobody could have that kind of natural talent. He's phenomenal."  
  
"Are you recording?" Julie asked without taking her eyes off Kotaro.  
  
"Yeah," he answered. "I'm going to try to get a closer shot though." He stood up and crossed in front of her and she followed.  
  
"I'm coming too." Since the moment the first note was birthed from his lips she had been fighting the urge to move closer, like a moth to a street lamp. Now she abandoned all resistance.  
  
There was surprisingly little standing room close to the stage, as it seemed quite a few other people—mostly young women—had acted quicker on the same impulse that she had. Even the waitresses, still carrying their trays of drinks, had stopped in their tracks to listen.  
  
They were a captive audience.  
  
"And now you find yourself in 82  
The disco hotspots hold no charm for you  
You can't concern yourself with bigger things  
You catch the pearl and ride the dragon's wings…"  
  
And yet Julie couldn't shake this selfish feeling that he was singing just to her. Maybe every girl in there felt the same way. It was the magic spell that Kotaro's voice cast. Then suddenly his eyes met hers right as he launched into the chorus again and her breath trembled.  
  
"It was the heat of the moment  
Telling me what your… smart…"  
  
Just like that, the spell was broken. All it took was for him to say 'smart' when the lyric was 'heart' and he was completely derailed.  
  
He stood paralyzed, mouth gaping like a fish as the music continued to play without his voice. White was visible all around his grey irises.  
  
 _Just keep singing_ , Julie silently mouthed. _You're okay_.  
  
Kotaro nodded and opened his mouth again, but what came out was anything but beautiful singing. "HEY EVERYBODY!" he shouted so loud it filled the auditorium. "CHECK OUT THIS SMART KICK!"  
  
"Oh dear god," muttered Akaba, dropping his forehead into his palm. "At least I'm getting it on my camera so we can show him when he doesn't believe us." As soon as he said it, the karaoke microphone hurtled like a comet into his camera, knocking it to the floor and smashing it to bits. Kotaro's 'smart' kick was a punt.  
  
While Akaba stooped to pick up the wreckage of his digital camera, Julie scrambled through the jeering crowd and onto the stage, desperate to protect her friend's dignity. Getting close to him would be a feat, though, as he was still kicking the air all around him and yelling like a howler monkey.  
  
"Kotaro," she said in a calm voice from a safe distance. "Kotaro, the song is over. It's time for you to get off the stage." Her words did nothing to thwart his flailing, so she reached out and gently touched his arm as she said his name one last time. "Kotaro?"  
  
Like the waking snap of a hypnotist's fingers, Julie's touch brought him back to reality. "Huh? Is the song over already?"  
  
"It's over," she assured him. "Please come outside with me. I need some fresh air." Before he had a chance to agree to it, she grabbed his wrist and led him out of the karaoke bar as fast as she could. The less of the audience's commentary he overheard, the better.  
  
Akaba was already waiting when they reached the sunlight.  
  
"Hey what gives?" Kotaro whined, twisting out of Julie's grip. "Why'd you pull me out of there? I was on fire! And why is _he_ out here?"  
  
"How much of your performance do you actually remember?" Akaba asked.  
  
"All of it," Kotaro answered. He'd just retrieved his trusty comb and was raking it through his hair. "I was totally smart right to the end, and you have the proof stored on your camera."  
  
Akaba held his handful of mechanical junk in front of Kotaro's face. "You kicked the microphone into it."  
  
"No way!" Kotaro stammered. "You mean… I went ballistic?" On his face was a mix of shock and disappointment and embarrassment that was barely concealed.  
  
It made Julie's chest twinge. "If it makes you feel better," she said with a tender smile, "You were incredible up until the part where you freaked out royally."  
  
"Really?" A hopeful grin spread across his face.  
  
She beamed back at him. "Really. You have an amazing voice."  
  
"You definitely have talent," Akaba added. "I can't believe I'm going to say this but… Kotaro, do you think you might be interested in singing with my band?'  
  
"Why would I want to be in a band with you and your stupid guitar?' he snorted. "Definitely not a smart move."  
  
"I think it's a good idea," said Julie. "It would be a shame to waste such a beautiful voice. And besides that, being in a band is sexy."  
  
"I'll do it." His answer punctuated her sentence almost before she finished it.  
  
Akaba smiled and nodded coolly. "Excellent. Now we just have to figure out what to do about your performance anxiety."  
  
Kotaro blinked innocently. "What performance anxiety?"  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of the chapter titles are songs from the 1980s. Both the music and movies of that decade were a major influence on this story, even if it isn't obvious.
> 
> The name of the secondhand store where Julie works, Red Threads, is a reference to the "red string of fate" that supposedly connects you to your soul mate.

 

Track 2: Just What I Needed

* * *

  
  
The stereo in the corner of Red Threads secondhand clothing store was spitting out old Japanese rock, but Julie ignored it. She was humming that silly song that Kotaro sang at the karaoke bar two weeks ago as she carefully folded t-shirts for a display.  
  
"Hey Sawai," her coworker, a girl with curled hair and oversized glasses, whispered excitedly in her ear. "Check out the five-star hottie that just walked through the door."  
  
Eagerly, Julie looked up from her work expecting, well, she wasn't sure who, but she was still surprised when she recognized the visitor. "Hey Akaba, welcome to Red Threads," she greeted genially.  
  
"Wait, you know him?" her baffled colleague uttered.  
  
"Yeah Yamaki, he's my friend from high school," she answered as if it were no big deal, because to her, it really wasn't.  
  
Yamaki rolled back her eyes and sighed. "So unfair. This one is even hotter than your friend who's always combing his hair, the loudmouth. Just so unfair." She sighed again then put her customer service smile back on and went to help another customer check out.  
  
"Er, sorry about that," Julie said to Akaba. "Yamaki is a little bit boy-crazy. So, uh, is this your first time here? Is there anything I can help you find?"  
  
A very slight hint of amusement was written on his composed features. "I've bought a few band t-shirts here before, but now that one of my friends is an employee I may have to stop by more often."  
  
"That would make my female coworkers happy," she chuckled. Her eyes danced around the store, searching for something. "So did Kotaro come with you? You guys had practice today, right?"  
  
Akaba pulled off his tinted glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose with the tips of his thumb and forefinger. A groan almost too quiet to hear slid from his throat. "No practice today. Our drummer needs a new drumhead for his bass and all of us felt like we needed a break."  
  
Despite the sparse details, there was no mystery to his story. "He put his foot through the bass drum?" Julie moaned. "He can't even rehearse without having a meltdown."  
  
"Not exactly," Akaba explained. "He did well when it was just the band. All the other members agree that his voice is incredible, and he actually has a pretty wide vocal range, so he's versatile. But when the other guys invited some friends to come watch…"  
  
"He flipped," she finished, shaking her head sadly. "Oh, Kotaro… Let me guess, he has no memory of the event."  
  
"None whatsoever," Akaba answered. His hands were busy rifling through the stack of shirts she'd just folded. "Say, do you have any shirts for The Who or Led Zeppelin?"  
  
Julie responded to his sudden subject change with confused blinks and a soft, "Huh?"  
  
"I'm just trying to help you look busy," he said breezily. "I wouldn't want you to get in trouble for talking to me when you're supposed to be working. So what time do they let you out of here?"  
  
She took a quick glance at her wristwatch. "In ten more minutes. Can you wait?"  
  
"Oh, you shouldn't have to make such a cute guy wait," said Yamaki, who had returned undetected and sidled next to Julie with a suggestive smirk. "As your supervisor I'm giving you permission, no, giving an order to leave early."  
  
"You know it's not very ethical to give people special treatment just because they're friends with boys," Julie said, but her coworker had already scuttled out of listening range. Julie sighed. "I'm sorry you had to get targeted like that. Like I said, totally boy-crazy."

 

  
…

  
Any time it was just her and Akaba, walking side-by-side in the city and talking comfortably, Julie couldn't help feeling like she was inside some other girl’s life. It was just so calm and ordinary when Kotaro wasn't with them. But, as was often the case when it just the two of them, Kotaro still managed to be the star of their conversation without being present.  
  
"So do you have any ideas?" Julie asked as they strolled the Shibuya sidewalk.  
  
"One," he said. "But I still think medical technology is years away from supporting brain transplants."  
  
For just a fraction of a second, Julie reacted with horror and almost gasped before looking up at Akaba's joking smile. "Very funny," she snickered. "But you know you wouldn't really want that. If you replaced his brain, Kotaro wouldn't be Kotaro."  
  
"I'm not saying he should have the whole thing replaced," he quipped. "Just the obnoxious parts."  
  
"Aw, he's not that bad," she said.  
  
Next to her, Akaba's footsteps slowed and she glanced up to find him looking curiously down at her. "There's really nothing about Kotaro's personality you would want to change?" he asked.  
  
The question triggered a memory montage to play in Julie's head. Nine-year old Kotaro stood up on the top of the schoolyard slide, proud as a king, and declared himself the best kicker in the entire third grade. An older version placed a football on a tee then paused to flick open a comb and rake it through his hair as he spoke to her with foolish hope: "How about if I make this kick, you'll go out on a date with me?"  
  
Julie pressed her fingertips against her lips to keep from laughing too loudly. Then her giggles suddenly turned into a cringe as her brain replayed Kotaro's microphone dropkick.  
  
"I don't know about changing his personality," she said urgently. "But we have to do something about his performance problem. And not just so he can share his voice with people. If he can't find a way to pass his exams…"  
  
Her voice trailed off and Akaba's took over. "I know what you mean. He's already going to be at least one year behind us."  
  
They passed the statue of Hachiko, where schoolgirls and boys waited for their teenage friends to meet them. It left a sharp, acid feeling in Julie's stomach. "Even if he does get in somewhere next year, we'll still be going to three different schools. With or without anxiety, I don't think he'll get into Saikyo."  
  
"Maybe not," Akaba mused. "But I wouldn't put it past him to follow you into the fashion industry."  
  
Any attempt not to laugh at that mental image of Kotaro at fashion design school, throwing the word 'smart' at his creations like confetti, was futile. "That Kotaro," she sighed. "What are we going to do with him?"  
  
Akaba shook his red head. "When I offered a theory that his problem might be a result of subconscious insecurity he spat on me."  
  
"I think trying to psychoanalyze Kotaro is a lost cause," Julie said.  
  
"Fuu, for me it definitely is," he replied. "But perhaps not for you. You've said more than once that you 'get him' better than most people do."  
  
Julie half smirked. "I get him just enough to know he won't buy into a psychological explanation. He's more likely to believe it has something to do with the phase of the moon on the night he was born."  
  
"Is he really that superstitious?" asked Akaba.  
  
"Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration," she admitted. "But he does tend to reject explanations that rely on data and theory. And he mistakes coincidences with 'signs' all the time. His emotions just overwhelm his intellect, the exact opposite of you."  
  
Akaba's mellowed gait came to a complete stop and she paused next to him, blurting out an apology. "I didn't mean that you don't have emotions, I just meant…" Looking up to examine his face, she found him not angry or hurt, but apparently deep in thought, a perfect illustration of the very statement she worried had offended him.  
  
"You're right," he said contemplatively. "I've been going about this all wrong, trying to push an intellectual fix for an emotional predicament. The solution to Kotaro's problem will have to appeal to his emotionality."  
  
"Now we just have to figure out what that solution is." As soon as Julie said it, her purse started humming. "That's my phone vibrating," she said as one hand dove into the bag to fish it out. "It's my sister. Oi! And no wonder! It's already six and I'm supposed to bring home dinner."  
  
She flipped open the phone and was greeted with a haughty squeak. "Julie where are you?"  
  
"Calm down, Haru, I'm on my way. Yes, I do know what time it is. You still want noodles? Okay, go ahead and call it in and I'll pick it up on the way home. Bye"  
  
"I guess we'll have to reschedule this conversation for later," Akaba said after she closed the phone. Was that a trace disappointment in his voice?  
  
"Looks like it," Julie answered. "My little sister Harumi is more than a little impatient when it's soba night. But I will be thinking about Kotaro all night."  
  
Akaba gave her an eyebrow raise and his subtlest smirk. "All night long, eh?"  
  
A fierce blush, so hot she could feel it, invaded Julie's cheeks. "I meant I'll think about his problem," she stammered. "And not all night long."  
  
"Relax Jewels, I'm just giving you a hard time," he said calmly. "So I'll catch you later?"  
  
"Yeah," she replied with an enthusiastic nod as her face cooled. "Hey, you guys have to hold a rehearsal on a day I'm not working. I still haven't heard you make music together."  
  
"Are you working tomorrow?" he asked.  
  
"Nope," she chirped. "Is that an invitation?"  
  
"One o'clock," he said, placing his glasses back on and pushing them up his nose. "My house. Come to the basement door in back."  
  
Julie grinned. "I'll be there." Then she patted Akaba's arm and dashed off towards Harumi's favorite noodle shop.

 

…

  
After cold soba and a hot bath, Julie stretched out on her bed and continued her intense contemplation of the Kotaro quandary. But silence wasn't very conducive to inspiration. What she needed was music.  
  
Rather than reaching for her trusty MP3 player, she pulled open the deepest drawer in her desk and took out her old CD player. She popped it open to make sure the disc she wanted was still inside and put the huge headphones over her ears. Then she grabbed her sketchbook and colored pencils and pressed play.  
  
"KICK the boredom,  
sprain an ankle,  
get SHOCKED  
  
KICK an empty can,  
beer spills out,  
get SHOCKED  
  
KICK a rock,  
hit a yakuza,  
get SHOT  
  
Coolly burn to cinders,  
don't mind the heat  
  
KICK the ball through the uprights,  
HAT TRICK"  
  
If her classmates from high school had known that she not only kept her copy of KICK SHOCK, but actually listened to it, they would have laughed for weeks. She had listened to it every evening since the day she heard Kotaro sing, every time imagining how it would sound in his own angelic voice.  
  
But that voice was locked up in chains of neurosis. Akaba's advice repeated over and over in her head. _Appeal to his emotionality. Appeal to his emotionality._  
  
 _I could tell him that if he performs for a live audience without messing up I'll go out with him,_ she thought. Even though she was alone and it was in her head, she still felt a flush of embarrassment. Julie couldn't do that to him. The goal was to appeal to his emotionality, not to exploit it.  
  
Her fingers flipped through the stiff pages of her sketchbook, the big one she doodled all her fashion ideas in, in the hopes that one kind of creativity might lead to another. Unfortunately, every single page was filled, which made sense since she'd had it since freshmen year.  
  
Finally she found one page that was mostly empty, just a leaf she must have liked pressed under clear tape in one corner. There was a small scrawl of writing that wasn't her own neat curls next to it.  
  
 _For good luck!_  
  
It was Kotaro's handwriting, and on second glance, the leaf was actually a four-leaf clover.  
  
Now she remembered, second year when she was so nervous about their looming English midterm, he had spent an hour on his hands and knees, searching the patch of clover in front of Bando for a lucky four-leafer.  
  
 _Silly Kotaro, should have kept it for himself. He's the one that needs a lucky charm._  
  
"A lucky charm!" she uttered out loud as if it had been obvious all along. It was a shot in the dark, but it just might work. No ordinary lucky charm would do of course. She would have to give him the ultimate lucky charm, an object so special that he would have utmost faith in its magical properties.  
  
Immediately, Julie got off her bed and went straight to her trunk of sewing supplies. Whenever she was this excited about a project she could stay up all night working on it without getting tired.  
  
Completing Kotaro's good luck charm didn't take quite that long, just until five in the morning.  
  
She woke up after eleven with crease marks on her face, her hair a disheveled halo of artificial blue. At least there was enough time to fix up her appearance and stop by Kotaro's before his practice.  
  
He'd lived in the same apartment building as her since they were in the second grade, two floors up and two doors down. Her showing up outside his door unannounced was nothing out of the ordinary. She pressed the doorbell and heard it chime inside the Sasaki household, followed by a scramble of bare feet and a familiar but garbled voice.  
  
"I'b gumming!"  
  
The door flung inward to reveal Kotaro in black sweatpants and a white undershirt, a toothbrush handle sticking out from the corner of his foamy mouth. As soon as he saw who his visitor was, his face lit up like a Christmas tree.  
  
"Julie!" he said delightedly, opening his mouth so wide that the toothbrush fell out and deposited a minty white smear down his pants before hitting the floor. He didn't even seem to care. "Wanna come in?"  
  
"Thanks," she said, stepping gingerly over the threshold.  
  
Kotaro had already disappeared somewhere.  
  
"Where'd you go?" she called, and a moment later he reappeared in jeans and a bowling shirt with his face washed and a comb in his hand.  
  
"So what brings you?" he asked eagerly. "Man, it's been forever since you stopped by."  
  
Julie muffled a giggle behind her fingers. "More like two weeks. And it's not like you didn't see me during that time. You come to bug me at work almost every day."  
  
"I still missed the pop-ins," he said. Then he suddenly frowned and bopped his forehead with the ball of his hand. "Un-smart! I can't hang out because the band is practicing today. Oh! Unless… Julie, you wanna come watch me sing?"  
  
"I was already planning to," she answered. "Akaba invited me." Kotaro's face puckered at her mention of that name, but before it progressed to a full-blown sulk, she added, "I'm coming for both of you. And you are the only one I brought a special present for."  
  
"A present?" he asked, excitement fully restored.  
  
She bobbed her chin and reached into her purse. "It's an extremely special present that I wouldn't entrust to anyone else but you." From her purse she retrieved a small, black velvet pouch.  
  
Kotaro's eyes sparkled like a child's on Christmas as she pulled open the drawstring. "Ooh! Is it jewelry? A necklace? A ring?"  
  
"Okay, hold out your arm," Julie said.  
  
"Ah, a bracelet!" he exclaimed, thrusting his wrist in front of her. "Should I close my eyes?"  
  
"Only if you want to," she said, giving him an odd look. He squeezed them shut and she carefully fastened the bracelet. His skin was softer than she expected. "Alright, you can open your eyes now."  
  
Grey eyes sprang open to look at his gift, but his brow scrunched in confusion as soon as he saw it. "No gold, or silver, or diamonds? I've never seen a bracelet like this."  
  
"That's because it's the only one in the whole world," said Julie.  
  
It was stitched and woven, rather than filigreed or faceted, made from meticulously embroidered pieces of blue suede that were strung together with braided golden-brown threads.  
  
"It's kind of smart," Kotaro said thoughtfully as he turned his wrist to look at the bracelet from every angle.  
  
"I haven't even told you the best part," Julie said. She could barely contain her zeal to tell the item's tale. "The previous owner of that bracelet... was Elvis."  
  
A second of silence passed before Kotaro processed the news and gasped in utter shock. "Elvis Presley? The King of rock and roll? No way! I don't believe it! How… how did you get this?"  
  
"Someone brought it in to the store," she explained. "A man who used to be a famous singer gave it to me to sell. He said the King gave it to him after a concert here in Tokyo when he was just a boy, and that it had always brought him good luck while singing on stage."  
  
Kotaro's jaw was hanging open. "Why would anyone give away something so priceless?"  
  
Julie shrugged. "The guy said it was time for someone else to benefit from it. I know what you mean, though. At first I didn't believe him at all, until I did some research and found this." She pulled a folded piece of paper from her purse and handed it to him.  
  
"That's a photo of Elvis! And he's wearing the bracelet!" He was absolutely giddy. "This has got to be worth tens of thousands of yen. Are you really sure you want to give it to me?"  
  
"I'm sure. Elvis' lucky bracelet should belong to a fellow rock singer." Alongside her elation that Kotaro believed her story, Julie felt a tiny prickle of guilt. There was nothing cruel about this charade, but she still didn't feel totally at ease lying to her oldest friend.  
  
"Hey Julie," he said softly, lightly touching her shoulder with one hand. His smile was sweet, gentle. "Thank you. Now come and watch me rock!"

 

…

  
Kotaro's plucky mood persisted for the entire walk to Akaba's house and didn't dissipate or even diminish when that cool face and crown of red hair appeared in the door to let them in.  
  
"Hey Jewels," Akaba greeted. "And I see you came with the spaz. Come on in."  
  
"Spaz this!" Kotaro trumpeted, waving his wrist mere centimeters in front of Akaba's eyes as he passed through the door. "Pretty smart, eh?"  
  
Akaba pulled his head back slightly and blinked his eyes. "I didn't even see it. What was that?"  
  
An expression of unmitigated haughtiness was plastered on Kotaro's face. "This is Elvis Presley's lucky bracelet. And it now belongs to me."  
  
Before responding, Akaba's eyes surreptitiously darted to Julie and she gave an almost imperceptible nod to signal him to play along. "Wow, how'd you get your hands on something like that?" Even when he played impressed he sounded nonchalant, but at least it was in character.  
  
"I happen to have a connection in the vintage clothing business," Kotaro said.  
  
"Fuu, I almost forgot," said Akaba. "Once Sakai gets here, we'll warm up with Hound Dog and see if you can use that bracelet to channel the King."  
  
"Wait, you mean Sakai from the football team?" Julie asked curiously.  
  
"Yeah, he's our drummer," Kotaro said. "Didn't I tell you? And the bassist is a Spider, too."  
  
Taking a second survey of the Akaba basement, she noticed a familiar stocky boy lifting an electric bass guitar from its case. He had been the captain of the kick team. "Wow, so you're all ex-Spiders."  
  
Kotaro beamed. "That's right. And that's why the band is called Daddy Long Legs. You know, like those spiders with the long legs."  
  
"And you're a Spider with long legs, too," she said. "I get it."  
  
Sakai arrived and put on a look of trepidation as soon as he saw Kotaro. "I brought my girlfriend," he said, scratching his blond shag. "And I see Sawai is here too. Think you can stay calm today?"  
  
"Hey, I am made of calm," Kotaro stated. "Now let's rock!"  
  
Julie sat down on the carpet next to Sakai's girlfriend, her heart fluttering to the sound of Akaba tuning his guitar. With no introduction, the song just burst into life from the amps and the drums and from Kotaro's lungs.  
  
"You ain't nothin' but a hound dog,  
cryin' all the time."  
  
Two weeks of trying to replay his voice in her head was not enough to prepare her for the real thing. And having a real band rather than a karaoke machine just made it ten times more awesome. While the bass guitar and drumming were competent, Akaba’s lead guitar was phenomenal, and his talent was only enhanced by having Kotaro’s voice paired with it.  
  
"You ain't never caught a rabbit  
and you ain't no friend of mine."  
  
The last line poured from his lips and the musicians wrapped up the song. It was perfect.  
  
Everyone in the room fell dead silence for a moment and then Akaba yelled out, "Suspicious Minds." So they moved on to the next song, nobody saying a word about Kotaro's success.  
  
There was triumph in the air, though. Julie could feel it, in the atmosphere, radiating from the band members, and in her own heart. They played song after song, moving from Elvis to the Beatles to the Rolling Stones. Akaba's little sister, Shika, came down and so did his mother, but no matter how big the audience grew, Kotaro never faltered.  
  
After a certain number of songs, once their faces started to glisten with perspiration, the band decided to take a break and Julie leapt to her feet. Without thinking about it, she went straight to Kotaro. "That was incredible. You guys sounded great."  
  
"I was smart, right?" he asked.  
  
"Totally smart." She couldn't stop grinning, couldn't slow her racing heart. "I think Daddy Long Legs should record a single."  
  
Akaba, who was just lifting his guitar strap off over his head, looked at her. "Now that we've worked out the last, er, kink, recording would logically be the next step. But we need a hit song of our own."  
  
A tune was playing in the background of Julie's brain, something familiar. She twisted a finger in her blue hair, as if she could reel the melody out of her head. Ah! She had it. "How about KICK SHOCK?"  
  
All of the band members, except Akaba, seemed to deflate slightly at the suggestion. "You mean that weird theme song for Sasaki that the principal issued?" Sakai asked, lips pulled back in grimace of distaste.  
  
Kotaro's cheeks were pink with embarrassment. "The guys don't want to play that song," he said. "And I'd feel kind of silly singing it."  
  
Akaba alone looked actually interested in the idea, scratching the tip of his chin as he carefully considered it. "You know what, I think the song has potential. The only reason it's uncool is because it hasn't gotten a decent treatment."  
  
"The tune is very catchy," Julie said, thrilled that one person was of the same mind as her.  
  
"And the lyrics aren't bad either," Akaba added. "They'll sound great coming from Kotaro's pipes. As de facto leader of Daddy Long Legs, I say we should at least give it a try."  
  
Sakai sighed and spoke cautiously. "You know we all trust your judgment, Akaba. If you say the song could be great, we're with you all the way."  
  
"I'll start working on an arrangement," Akaba said. "In the mean time we should try to perform more in front of live audiences, just to make sure today's success wasn't a fluke. Think you're up to it, Kotaro?"  
  
Kotaro was utterly glowing. "Are you kidding? Right now I feel like I could do anything! And I owe it all to one person." He flashed Julie a brilliant smile that filled her belly with hot chocolate warmth. Then his eyes looked up towards the heavens. "Thank you, Elvis."  
  
Julie just shook her head and sighed. "Stupid Kotaro."


	3. Chapter 3

 

Track 3: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

* * *

  
  
The peach-hued light of morning reached through Julie's bedroom window and stroked her cheek, beckoning her gently back to the waking world. This was definitely the way to rise. Forgoing that obnoxious alarm clock was definitely one of her favorite aspects of having a day off and today was the first she'd had in a long time.  
  
Almost every day that Julie didn’t spend in classes, listening to long lectures about how to choose fabrics and the history of blue jeans, she spent working at Red Threads, and though she had managed to fatten her savings account in the last year, she'd had painfully little time with her two best friends. But then, they were even more busy than her.  
  
Gifting that bracelet to Kotaro had heralded a Year of Miracles, the first being that Kotaro was granted a last minute opportunity to take the entrance exam for Enma University and was, miraculously, accepted. It was only much later that he learned about Enma’s one hundred percent acceptance rate, but with his performance anxiety tamed, Kotaro probably would have gotten in anyways.  
  
And now he got to be a football kicker once again, playing alongside former opponents Kurita Ryokan from Deimon and Kongo Unsui from Shinryuuji. Of course, Akaba was on Saikyo’s football team, and with the likes of Hiruma and Agon for teammates, the Enma Fires never stood much of a chance of making it to the Rice Bowl. But Kotaro maintained high hopes for next tournament and Enma’s new recruits. And here was the greatest miracle of all: despite playing on opposing teams of rather disparate talent, Kotaro and Akaba were getting along better than they ever had before.  
  
Julie had a pretty good idea of why the animosity between the pair had cooled; it was the band, had to be. On the field they were rivals, but off the field they made beautiful music together in what little free time they could find. Sasaki Kotaro and Akaba Hayato: football stars, rock stars.  
  
Well, not quite rock stars, actually. More like one-hit wonders at this stage.  
  
But this was going to be their summer, Julie could feel it like hot embers in her chest, the same feeling she used to get before the Spiders took the field. With summer vacation just starting, the conditions were prime for Daddy Long Legs to give birth to the full-length album that Julie knew had been incubating in Ababa's head all year.  
  
She wanted to do everything she could to help them. Eventually. According to the clock on her bedside table, it was eight-thirty. She could easily get away with spending another half-hour just relaxing in bed with some fashion mags.  
  
Bing-BONG!  
  
The doorbell pealed once but Julie ignored it, licked a finger and turned the page of her magazine.  
  
Bing-BONG-Bing-BONG-Bing-BONG-Bing-BONG-Bing-BONG!!!  
  
Only one person in the world rang her doorbell so insistently. So with a lighthearted sigh she stripped back her down comforter and swung her feet to the floor. Hopefully, Harumi was already up and about and could let him in while she got dressed.  
  
Sure enough, the ring was chased by the sound of socks padding on hardwood and the opening squeak of the door. "Hey Julie, the doofus is here to see you!" her little sister hollered.  
  
Kotaro's voice barked back. "Who's the doofus, pipsqueak?"  
  
Knowing it wouldn't be the best idea to leave those two bickering while she chose an ensemble, Julie just tugged on a pair of bellbottom jeans and the first t-shirt she could grab. Then she gave her hair—which she still kept glossy short and blue—a quick brushing and left her bedroom.  
  
Out in the living room, Kotaro and Harumi were a meter apart, still squabbling about whether or not he was a doofus and she was a pipsqueak, and arguing what qualities defined each epithet. Neither seemed to notice that Julie had arrived on the scene.  
  
"Stop fighting, you two," she clucked.  
  
Kotaro turned and grinned at her. "It was all in good fun, Julie. Besides, it was the pipsqueak who started it." He gestured rudely with his thumb.  
  
Julie rolled her eyes at him. "Harumi is fifteen, you're nineteen. You could at least try to act like a grown up."  
  
"But I'm a rock star," he said matter-of-factly. "And rock stars never grow up. Oh, that reminds me… Catch!"  
  
"Huh?" She put her hands in front of her face just in time to catch the item he flung at her, a t-shirt. "A Daddy Long Legs shirt," she said delightedly upon unfolding it and seeing the band logo she’d designed silkscreened in black and white and red. "I guess that does bestow a bit of star status on you. When did they start selling these?"  
  
"They haven't yet," he said. "You hold in your hands a premium piece of rock merchandise. We may not have a huge following now, but by the end of summer Daddy Long Legs is going to be a household name."  
  
Julie examined his confident smile before responding. "Do you mean… the first album is going to be released sooner than expected?" There was excitement stitched into her voice.  
  
"It's even better than that!" Kotaro said, elated. "Let me show you! Where is your computer?"  
  
"It's in my room. I'll go…"  
  
Before she could finish saying that she would go and get it, he grabbed her by the elbow and boldly marched right through her bedroom door. He spotted the laptop resting on her desk and immediately opened it and turned it on.  
  
"You are not going to believe this!" He got onto the internet and clicked his way to Apple Computers' website. Then he selected a video clip from the menu and signaled for Julie to watch. "Look! Look!"  
  
In the clip, a familiar-looking black silhouette danced with kicks and jumps over a brightly colored background to the jubilant strains of Daddy Long Legs' hit song.  
  
"Is that you?" she asked breathlessly. "In an iPod commercial?"  
  
Kotaro kept grinning as he shook his head. "No, no, they got a professional dancer that looks like me. But it is my voice. My voice! Kick Shock! On a real iPod commercial!"  
  
They watched the video again and again, each viewing increasing Julie's heartbeats per minute. It was so exhilarating to hear her friends' music playing in a major ad campaign. This was huge! But it was only after the fourth replay that she realized that something wasn't quite right and gave Kotaro a quizzical look.  
  
"Kotaro, why haven't I seen this on TV?" she asked. "And why are we watching it on the English version of the website?"  
  
He had his comb out by now and was casually grooming as he answered. "Well it's only playing in North America right now."  
  
This was an odd twist. "Why only in North America?" she asked. "I didn't even know Japanese music was popular there."  
  
"Neither did I," he told her. "But apparently the website Akaba set up for the band has been getting tons of traffic from the United States ever since it launched last year. You know, Americans love stuff from Japan. Sushi and ninja and Pikachu and now Daddy Long Legs! Pretty smart, huh?"  
  
Even if the cautious, realistic side of her felt wary at his overflowing confidence, the buoyant, ever-optimistic girl within her cheered. "That's so awesome!" she said with a bright smile. "Things are really starting to come together for you guys." She paused and asked more cautiously, "So, how are your college classes coming?"  
  
"Classes?" he snorted, a cocky grin in place. "I go to them often enough to not flunk out, if that’s what you mean. As long as they let me play on the football team, that’s all that really matters. Of course, football is just for fun. But being a rock star, that’s a career path. And it doesn’t require good grades."  
  
Hearing his proclamation, the realistic Julie whacked the stupidly optimistic Julie over the head with a rolled up newspaper and took control of the mouth. "Are you serious, Kotaro? After you went through so much just trying to get into a university you’re just going to throw your education away? And what if your plan doesn’t work out? What will you do for a job?"  
  
Uh-oh. He had that childish sulky look on his face again, eyebrows angled down and creasing between them, lower jaw jutting. "Why do you assume the rock star plan won't work out?"  
  
With a low, deep exhale, she flopped backwards onto her unmade bed. "Oh, Kotaro, Kotaro… Of course I don't assume it won't work. I just wish you had a backup plan in case…"  
  
The mattress sank to her left as he sat down next to her and leaned back so they were laying side by side. "In case what?" he asked plainly.  
  
Julie rolled her head towards him. He was already looking over at her, those grey eyes imploring her for an answer. "I dunno…" she said, sounding far more self-conscious than she wanted to. "You could get throat cancer and lose your voice forever."  
  
"I could get brain cancer and die," he countered. "You can't be prepared for everything."  
  
"Fair enough," she conceded. "But… What if you change your mind about being a rock star? The entire time you were in high school, all you wanted to do was play football and be the number one kicker. Now you say it’s just for fun. Just like that, you've traded one dream for another."  
  
He shrugged as best he could while lying down. "People change, Julie. And I do still love football. Always will. But let's face it, professional sports just isn't a stable career choice."  
  
"And the music industry is?" she squawked incredulously. "Show business is cruel, Kotaro! It changes people! Breaks them! And if that happened to you…!"  
  
It suddenly occurred to Julie that both she and Kotaro had effortlessly shifted onto their sides and were now facing each other with their whole bodies. He had a funny little smirk on his lips.  
  
"Haven't I demonstrated to you that a passionate spirit can't be broken?" he said. "As long as I've got passion, I'll just let it take me where it will. Planning ahead too much is not my style, not smart."  
  
"So I guess Akaba's sensibility hasn't rubbed off at all after a year in the band together," Julie chuckled nervously.  
  
The mere mention of Akaba immediately brought a disgruntled scowl to Kotaro's face. "Don't compare me to that guy," he snorted. "Sure he's a great guitar player and all, but his long speeches about music theory are soooooo boring. And he keeps trying to make me learn to read sheet music."  
  
Julie erupted in a fit giggles that she hid behind her hand. What was she worried about? The more things changed, the more Kotaro stayed the same. But at least he could admit now that Akaba was a talented musician; that was one step towards maturity.  
  
His warm fingers touched her wrist and the laughter caught in her throat.  
  
"You still cover your mouth when you laugh," he said, pulling her hand away. "Ever since fifth grade, when you got knocked to the blacktop with that kickball and chipped your front tooth."  
  
"Yeah," she said. "It's been fixed for years, but I guess old habits die hard. I'm surprised you even remember."  
  
Kotaro's fingers were still wrapped around her wrist, making her feel awkward. Her eyes sought any target other than his face. She looked at his hand, holding hers, and at Elvis' bracelet encircling it. A finger from her free hand touched the soft blue suede.  
  
"You're wearing the bracelet I gave you," she said quietly.  
  
"Of course," he replied. "I only take it off when I go in the shower. It's my treasure."  
  
A year had past and he still wore it, still treasured it. The dream of any designer, of course, was to have people know your name and recognize your creations. Yet, even though that bracelet was only important to him because he thought it had belonged to Elvis, she still felt happy to see it on him.  
  
"You can let go of my arm now," she said. His grip sprang open and she rubbed the ring of cool the loss of contact had left around her wrist. "Thanks."  
  
The room fell into near silence, nothing but the sound of their breathing filling the space between them (which seemed a whole lot smaller than it did when the conversation began). Kotaro's eyes never left her face and he had an oddly contented smile on his face. It made Julie's insides squirm like a restless puppy.  
  
"What're you thinking about?" he asked her, and for reasons she couldn't explain, Julie blurted out the truth.  
  
"I was just thinking that if this was a TV drama or a girls' comic, right now is when the guy would kiss the girl. But the boy and girl would be a couple though. Not childhood friends. Of course."  
  
Kotaro's gaze narrowed intensely and he reached out to brush his knuckles against her cheek. Her heart was pounding like a taiko drum. He leaned closer, eyelids lowering.  
  
 _"You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen!"_  
  
"Ah! That's my cell phone!" Julie squeaked, scrambling up from the bed all flushed and flustered. She snatched up her phone and answered in a sheepish voice. "Hello? Oh, hey Akaba."  
  
"Ugh, Akaba," groaned Kotaro, now sprawled over the entire surface of the bed.  
  
Just looking at him made her imagination wander off to what might have happened if her phone hadn't rung and heat surged through her blood vessels. She turned around and tried to concentrate on Akaba's cool voice.  
  
"So Jewels, what are you doing on your first day of summer vacation?"  
  
"Nothing official. Right now I'm just hanging out at home. Kotaro is here with me."  
  
"Interesting…" He said the word like a psychoanalyst would, drawing out each syllable. "Would you two care to meet up somewhere and get lunch?"  
  
"Yeah, that sounds great."  
  
"I'll meet you in an hour, at the Hachiko statue for old times' sake."  
  
When she closed the phone, Kotaro was back on his feet, arms folded and lips frowning. "I assume we're going to be a trio for the rest of the day?" he huffed.  
  
In spite of all his pouting, Kotaro didn't voice any complaints on the trip to meet Akaba. He didn't really say much at all, which was perfectly alright with Julie. She would rather endure silence than for him say something about what happened, or rather, what almost happened back in her bedroom.  
  
Once they reached Hachiko and joined up with Akaba, any tension was dissolved. They were just three high school friends again, laughing, talking football and music while they looked for a place to have lunch. Kotaro wanted Chinese and Akaba wanted sushi, so they wound up at an Italian restaurant.  
  
"Do you have any plans for the summer, Kotaro?" Akaba asked, calm as ever, between bites of his Caesar salad.  
  
Kotaro's cheeks were bulging like a chipmunk's with spaghetti and meatballs, but unlike Akaba, he didn't bother to swallow before speaking. "Juft shinging wish Babby Yong Gegs."  
  
"Well," Akaba said as he shoved a napkin pointedly across the table to him. "If all you plan on doing is singing, would you object to doing it outside of Tokyo?"  
  
"Wait," said Julie. "Are you talking about going on tour?"  
  
"On tour?" Kotaro had swallowed and cleaned his face and was leaning eagerly forward, like a dog about to be walked. "And by outside of Tokyo… Are we going to Kansai? Ooh! Kansai! We have to get okonomiyaki while we're there!"  
  
Halfway done with his plate of pasta and he was already thinking about another meal. Silly Kotaro. If he had a tail it would be wagging.  
  
Akaba responded crisply. "Not Kansai. It's a bit further away than that."  
  
Julie and Kotaro tilted their heads in curious unison. "Further away, like… Hokkaido?" he asked.  
  
"America," said Akaba.  
  
"America?" Julie and Kotaro exclaimed together, loud enough that some patrons at the nearest tables turned their heads.  
  
Akaba took a slow sip of water, in no hurry, before elaborating. "I have to admit that I don't know how a smalltime Japanese band like Daddy Long Legs garnered such a devoted fanbase in the United States in such a short time. But, for whatever reason, there is an audience for us across the ocean."  
  
"That's great!" Kotaro boomed, slamming his palms on the table and leaping to his feet. "We'll get to be rock stars in America, and a free vacation to boot! I'm in! So what are talking a couple weeks?"  
  
"More like a couple months," Akaba clarified. "We'd leave next week and be gone the whole summer. And we wouldn't be playing huge venues, of course, just spreading our sound at events and testing our new songs before they go on an album. Think you can handle it?"  
  
Slowly, Kotaro sank back down to his seat.  
  
Julie stared at his face, which was strangely blank for someone who'd just been presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Then his eyes homed in on hers and he returned her stare for almost a full minute before answering Akaba's query.  
  
"Yeah, I can handle it."  
  
Finally she saw a confident, fiery smile on Kotaro's face and tide of relief washed over her. But what had delayed it? What was he searching for in her eyes?  
  
The rest of lunch was filled with fervent discussions about the upcoming trip, as if that moment of uncertainty had never happened and Julie concluded that it was probably just a fluke. One of those moments when the brain just goes blank, perhaps. The way he was wolfing down those meatballs, it could have simply been indigestion.  
  
While the trio waited for the bill to come, two girls, high school kogals, approached their table with tiny steps, blushing and giggling the whole time. "Um… excuse me," one of them stuttered. "Are you Kotaro from Daddy Long Legs?"  
  
Kotaro beamed charmingly. "The one and only." Then he winked at the girls and they fell against each other squealing with joy.  
  
"Oh my god! He's so cute in real life!"  
  
"And that means the other guy is Akaba Hayato! Kyaa~!"  
  
Whereas Kotaro was drinking in the unexpected attention like a flower in sunshine, Akaba looked stiff, uncomfortable even. At least that was the impression Julie got.  
  
The young fangirls regained their composure and each produced a copy of Kick Shock from identical shoulder bags and thrust it forward.  
  
"Sign our CDs?" one girl pleaded for both of them. "She's Reiko and I'm Shizuka. We're huge fans."  
  
"Oh, um… of course," Akaba answered. Always cool and aloof, it was surreal to see him reacting so gawkily.  
  
As singer and guitarist were autographing, their fans turned attention to the only female presence at the table. "So, are you like, Akaba's girlfriend?" Reiko giggled.  
  
Julie cocked her head back and blinked in surprise. She was used to people asking her if Kotaro was her boyfriend, but this was the first time anyone had asked in regard to Akaba. "Well," she began.  
  
"She's not!" Kotaro spat viciously.  
  
The girl recoiled and made a face like she had something sour in her mouth. "Oh… She's not _your_ girlfriend, is she, Kotaro?"  
  
"She is a close personal friend to both of us," Akaba said in a shockingly sharp tone that caused both girls to flinch. "Here are your CDs. Have a nice day."  
  
Reiko and Shizuka slunk away, exchanging hushed whispers they must have thought were too soft to be heard, as they exited. "That Akaba is scary in person. Totally hot, but scary. Kotaro is more my type, though. So who do you think that girl is? She's not very cute…"  
  
The rest was cut off with the closing swing of the restaurant door.  
  
Kotaro turned to Akaba with a smug smile. "Way to reach out to the fanbase, guitar boy."  
  
"I was merely unprepared for such scrutiny," he replied dismissively. "The fans I had as a football player didn't inquire about my love life. It was unnervingly personal."  
  
"I hate to say it," Julie sighed. "But I think you are just going to have to get used to it."  
  
Akaba's mouth was set in a hard line. "Maybe so, but I don't want them dragging you into their gossip, Jewels."  
  
This little sign of concern from Akaba made her blush against her own will. "You don't have to worry about me," she said. "Nobody in America will have ever seen me. They won't know who I am."  
  
Not to be outdone in chivalry, Kotaro interjected. "And even if they did, I'd kick 'em in the teeth if they ever said anything bad about you!"

 

  
…

  
One week was, in actuality, a very short length of time, particularly when it was all the time left before Julie's two best friends would leave to go halfway around the world. If she had known earlier, she would have taken all seven of those days to help them get ready, pick stylish clothes for them, listen in on those last minute rehearsals. But alas, she was only awarded the actual day of departure off work.  
  
Up until that day came, she crammed Kotaro and Akaba into her schedule on either side of her shifts at Red Threads, even when it meant waking and going to sleep at ridiculous hours and being only half-conscious at work.  
  
That time spent with them, while precious, was full and frantic, a far cry from the blissfully meaningless waste of past summers that she cherished in memory.  
  
With each day that week, Julie wanted less and less to think about her boys actually leaving. Though she had started out with nothing but jubilation, and still displayed as much on the surface, little thoughts and worries were accumulating like barnacles underneath this titanic American Tour.  
  
Would Kotaro have a relapse of his performance anxiety? How would the American fans receive them? Would they be okay traveling around in a foreign country?  
  
Then there were more selfish things, like the small twinge of anguish she felt at the thought of a whole summer alone. Since the day she met him, Julie had not spent a single summer without Kotaro.  
  
There were also the fangirls that haunted her overactive imagination. Of course there would be more girls like Reiko and Shizuka, blonde, blue-eyed Americans, thrusting their enormous breasts in Kotaro's face. Why did that thought drive her absolutely crazy?  
  
Much as she was not looking forward to it, the fated day arrived with a five AM shriek of that wretched alarm clock. The boys had an early flight and Julie was going to accompany them to the airport, squeeze out every last second with them she could.  
  
She dressed herself with sleep clumsy hands in a mini skirt and the heather gray Daddy Long Legs shirt that Kotaro gave her. Then she swept her hair off her face with a white headband and headed out to make the familiar journey two floors up and two doors down.  
  
Kotaro was in jeans and a t-shirt when he answered the door, a state of readiness she hadn't seen from him since the last time he went to America, for the youth football world tournament. He was truly exhilarated about this trip.  
  
And yet, he didn't say much on the train ride to the airport, too tired to banter, or perhaps too excited. His legs were jittering the whole way.  
  
They were the last to arrive at the terminal. Although Sakai was nowhere to be seen, Akaba politely insinuated that he was saying goodbye to his girlfriend in private.  
  
"I guess this is the final countdown," Julie said, the air that pushed the words out trembling as it left her chest. "I know it's just for the summer, but it's the longest since we've all been friends that you guys will be away from me. No matter how incredible this is, you know I'm still going to miss you. It's so silly."  
  
The coolness of Akaba's face warmed slightly with the appearance of a smile. "It's not silly. We'll miss you too, Jewels." He paused and lifted off the guitar case that was slung across his back, presenting it to her. "Kiss my guitar for good luck?"  
  
Julie raised one eyebrow. "Since when do you believe in luck?" Without waiting for an answer to the rhetorical question, she unzipped the case and pressed her lips to the cold steel strings.  
  
Looking over at Kotaro, she saw an opportunistic smile. "Why don't you kiss my instrument?" he asked, wetting his lips with the tip of his tongue.  
  
"Nice try, silly," she responded, playfully ruffling his thick, dark hair. Then she touched his wrist. "You have Elvis' bracelet. That should provide you all the luck you need." She had to be careful, though, as fingering his bracelet is what had previously led her to almost kissing him.  
  
"Hey, it looks like our flight's started boarding," Akaba interrupted. "We'd better get going, Kotaro."  
  
Julie sniffed once and bobbed her head vigorously. "Right, right. Don't forget to take care of each other over there." A puckish smile twisted her lips. "And don't forget to make the best damn music in the world. Show them how we rock in Japan."  
  
Kotaro didn't grin but got the hard, focused look that always preceded a perfect field goal. "We will," he said. "The world is going to know who we are." He held up his hand and she slapped him a high five. Then he turned around and headed through the terminal.  
  
Julie watched his back growing smaller until it disappeared completely then she dropped into the middle of a row of empty seats all bolted together. Once assured that their plane had safely gotten off the ground, she would go home and do, well, she had no idea what.  
  
Goodbyes were all around her: families, friends, couples. Some were hugging goodbyes, some were handshake goodbyes, some were crying goodbyes. She knew that overly affectionate farewells weren't the norm for Japanese people, but still, she wished she had given him more than a high five.  
  
Her eyes moved down to the toes of her boots as she tried not to see anything that would remind her of Kotaro. Lucklessly, a pair of hi-top sneakers remarkably like his paused in front of her and wouldn't move.  
  
What did this guy want?  
  
"Excuse me, may I help…" When she looked up, her gaze was met by a pair of smoke-colored eyes, shiny as river stones and her sentence dissolved. "Kotaro?" she breathed. "What are you doing, idiot? You're going to miss your flight."  
  
"No I won't," he said assuredly. "I've got time."  
  
"Time… to do what?" Julie asked. There was a vague sense anticipation shuddering in her belly, like a bird about to take flight.  
  
"I have to ask you something," Kotaro said, his voice soft and thoughtful, two qualities it normally lacked. "I am all set to go on this tour, but I was wondering if there might be some reason you can think of that I shouldn't."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, sometimes I can be a bit reckless," he continued. "And I do things without thinking them through first. But you always know what I should do. So if there is any reason you can think of, any reason at all, that I shouldn't go to America for the summer, just say the word and I'll stay here in Japan with you."  
  
As he spoke, Kotaro took on a hauntingly angelic appearance. Long, black lashes cast shadows on his cheeks. Lips, pink and perfectly bow-shaped, closed, pursed for a moment, and then softened. He was waiting for her to respond.  
  
But words wouldn't come from her mouth. Now, when supplying a prompt answer was crucial, Julie found herself dumbstruck.  
  
She could no longer deny her ugly, selfish feelings. That she wanted him to stay, wanted him to waste his summer with her like he always did. That she didn't want him to leave and come back changed by stardom, unrecognizable as the Kotaro she grew up with. Her Kotaro.  
  
Her lips slid open and words finally came out. "I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't spend your summer in America. Now hurry or you'll miss your flight."  
  
"Okay," he said mechanically. "I'll see you in September. Goodbye, Julie."  
  
"Goodbye, Kotaro."  
  
For the second time in less than ten minutes, he left her. This time she didn't wait for the plane to take off. She ran from the airport as if the air inside were suffocating her. By the time she reached home, her Daddy Long Legs t-shirt was striped with tears.  



	4. Chapter 4

 

 

Track 4: Vacation

* * *

  
  
July brought thick, muggy heat that even the near daily rain squalls couldn't wash away, and emerging from any air-conditioned space became a thing done only out of dire necessity. And yet Julie, perhaps idiotically, kept subjecting herself to extra shifts at Red Threads, extra treks to and from Shibuya in the sticky summer swelter.  
  
Her objective was to keep herself busy so she wouldn't feel her best friends' absence so sharply. It was a failed plan. Working more didn't make her any less bored and it certainly didn't make the days go by any quicker. Summer was an absolute drag.  
  
Today she was at home because, as Yamaki put it, it was time to let someone else earn overtime pay. The temperature outside being one hundred degrees, Julie was more than happy to oblige. She was still bored, but at least she was cool.  
  
Stretched out on her stomach in bed, she opened her computer and loaded Daddy Long Legs' website. There had been only one update to their blog since they left for America, written by Akaba in both Japanese and English.

  
_We have officially arrived in California. I know it's a cliché to say so, but the weather truly is beautiful here. The members of Daddy Long Legs are all very happy to have this opportunity to meet our kind fans in the United States and be able to play our songs for them. Please forgive the lack of updates to this site over the summer. We are quite busy making friends and making music. And if our manager is reading this, know that we miss you and wish you were here. Alas, another cliché._   
  
_Peace, Akaba._

  
Daddy Long Legs didn't have a manager. Akaba handled those duties himself. When Julie realized that the message was to her, affection blossomed in the center of her chest. It was reassuring to know that even with all the fun they were having being rock stars, they still had time to miss the old friend who was left bored out of her mind back in Japan.  
  
She closed her computer and rolled to her back with a sigh. It would be silly of her to waste her day wondering whether Kotaro and Akaba were getting along in America—though she desperately hoped that they were—or how many fans were showing up for their performances. There had to be fun she could have without those two.  
  
Hmm…  
  
The girls she knew from college were starting to grate on her nerves. Their inane discussions of every single calorie they'd ingested in the last forty-eight hours and how worthless each one made them feel were about as fun to listen to as a three-hour lecture on lint. And not one of them had any appreciation for the beauty of 1970's fashion—they actually called it tacky, the audacity! They were peers, not friends.  
  
Yamaki from work was only interested in talking to her about Akaba—though she usually referred to him as 'that scrumptious red-haired man-snack'—and asking what his 'type' of girl was. As if Julie actually knew. It always reminded her that one of the best things about being friends with boys was that they talked about more interesting things than boys.  
  
God, she missed those two so much. Especially Kotaro. She could just imagine the sound of his rapid-fire doorbell ring, the sight of him, distorted through her peephole, cocking that giant water gun—his favorite summer toy—in preparation for a sneak attack. Didn't he realize that she could see him? But inevitably, she would always let him in and take her soaking with good humor.  
  
The memory made her chest ache faintly so she tried not to think about it.  
  
Of course, there was always Harumi for companionship. It had been a while since Julie had spent any quality time with her little sister. Sure, Haru was a smart-mouthed, fake-tanned kogal, but she was still family, and Julie wouldn't get to see her very often once she was a fashion designer living in Paris or New York City.  
  
After getting this far into the day, nearly noon, without changing out of pajamas, Julie saw no reason to do so before leaving her bedroom. Harumi was sprawled on the living room floor with the newest issue of Cookie, an electric fan gusting full power in her face even though the air conditioning was doing its job splendidly.  
  
"Hey, sis," Julie cheerfully greeted, but Harumi didn't even look up. "Nana good this month?"  
  
"Saving it for last," Haru answered in a peevish grunt. The sisterly bonding plan might be more of a challenge than first anticipated. "Oh, you got something in the mail today," Haru added apathetically. "It's got United States postage on it so it's probably from ol' doofus. It's on the kitchen table."  
  
With a burst of excitement, Julie launched herself into the kitchen and practically dove into the neat stack of mail. The item she sought was at the very bottom, a rather thick brown envelope with six perfectly aligned American flag stamps in the corner. She was grinning before she even opened it.  
  
The handwriting wasn't Kotaro's wild scrawls. It was tight and precise, like the script of a government official. Akaba's. But that didn't thwart her enthusiasm. She tore into it like a five-year old opening a candy bar. Inside were a smaller envelope and a folded letter, also in Akaba's writing.  
  
 _Dear Jewels,_  
  
 _I hope you saw the shout-out to you on the website, even though it was worded to protect your anonymity. Sorry I haven't had much time to email you. I kind of wanted this letter to be a pleasant surprise. Our American fans have been very friendly and very enthusiastic. I am shocked that there are so many and can't help wondering how many of them know what our lyrics mean. We are really having a lot of fun, though._  
  
Julie frowned at the slight jealousy that line aroused in her but continued reading.

 _By now I am guessing that your summer is starting to wear thin, so I'm sending you a present that I hope will make things more exciting. It will require you to take some vacation days from work, but knowing you, I am sure you have saved up over a month's worth._  
  
 _Kotaro sends his regards._  
  
 _Peace, Akaba_  
  
"Regards?" Julie muttered, wrinkling her nose at the most un-Kotaro-ish sentiment. It read more like an afterthought, included only because Akaba knew Kotaro hadn't contacted her either and knew that she would be wondering about him. She tried not to let it get to her. Kotaro wasn't much of an author, so the fact that he didn't email or write her was no proof that he had nothing to say.  
  
Once again she had to make a concerted effort not to think about Kotaro, this time by turning her attention to that enticing little envelope. Her heart beat out an elated flutter when she opened the envelope and saw what her present was: one front row ticket to Daddy Long Legs' August 15th concert in Honolulu, one backstage pass, and one plane ticket to Hawaii.  
  
No need to worry about Kotaro not writing. She was going to see him in person, Akaba too.  
  
"Yahoooo!" she squealed, so loud that everyone living on the same floor of the apartment complex must have heard. But Julie didn't give a hoot. She was on cloud nine, literally jumping for joy until her sister came in and glared at her like she belonged in a loony bin.  
  
"What the hell has got into you?" Haru asked, staring wide-eyed at her older sister's antics.  
  
"I'm going to Hawaii!" Julie jubilantly declared. "Hawaii! Hawaii!"  
  
Then she danced a loose but graceful pirouette, recalling her five years of childhood ballet lessons, past her sister and back out to the living room. Retrieving Harumi's abandoned magazine, she twirled twice on one foot then made a nimble landing on the couch before flipping the pages to Nana.  
  
This summer was suddenly looking pretty damn good.  
  
Mere possession of those tickets had an immediately magical effect, transforming the remaining days leading up to their actual use from excruciating drudgery to giddy anticipation. Even the heat seemed to let up, soothed by thoughts of island breezes and Kotaro's coffee ice cream voice.

 

  
…

  
Narita Airport, Julie noted, took on a completely different aura when one of those big white birds was taking her to her friends, rather than taking them away from her. No longer were the terminals filled with bittersweet goodbyes. Or maybe they were, but she didn't notice them because this time it wasn't the people left behind that she identified with, it was all those with their suitcases and garment bags in tow, bound for exotic destinations.  
  
Her heart was thrumming as she found her seat on the plane. Hands clammy with perspiration hugged her carryon to her chest, as if this was going to be a five-minute bus ride and she had to be ready to exit at the next stop.  
  
"No need to be so anxious, my dear," a tiny, grey-haired old woman sitting next to her said. "The Islands will still be there when we arrive."  
  
"Right," Julie chuckled sheepishly. She settled deep into her seat and loosened the grip on her bag. Hawaii would wait for her and so would Kotaro.  
  
It was a long flight, a long confinement in a giant metal tube full of recirculated air. Julie didn't like admitting that she was not a good flier. Imagine, a young woman whose future plans included traveling to the most glamorous cities in the world gasping sickly every time the plane pitched on an air current.  
  
The nausea churned the sea of her stomach like a thunderstorm, dredging up thoughts and feelings long sunken. Kotaro's goodbye, the second one, came back to her clearly, the robotic tone of his voice and the distant look in his eyes.  
  
Wait, was she really remembering it clearly?  
  
If she was then Kotaro's emotion at that time was not too difficult to pin down. Disappointment. Even though Julie was able to beat down her selfish urge to hold him back, Kotaro must have noticed from her hesitation that it was a battle inside her, that she had actually considered tearing him away from his dream.  
  
Maybe that's why she only got regards from him.  
  
Of course she might have the situation all wrong. Feeling sick has a tendency to distort one's perceptions, even of past events, and make things seem a lot less pleasant then they are or were. Perhaps what she remembered as disappointment had actually been restrained jubilation.  
  
If she'd only been less emotional in the moment she would have deciphered his body language right then and there, and wouldn't be tormenting herself over it now.  
  
After the first hour or so, her stomach started to settle, and with it, her brain. She pulled from her carryon bag two of her very favorite things, a pristine new sketchbook and the iPod she'd bought after seeing Daddy Long Legs' commercial.  
  
Most of the song they were performing in America were already stored on her device, raw, not-quite-ready-for-the-album versions that Kotaro had burned on a CD for her before he left. Kick Shock was still her favorite.  
  
Yes, Julie was feeling much better now. How silly of her to worry about her best friend being upset with her when she was less than a day away from seeing him in person and talking to him face-to-face.  
  
She pressed play on her iPod, closed her eyes and let his voice fill her.  
  
Her next lucid experience was feeling a gentle prodding of the soft part of her arm. Eyes opened with a flutter and focused the blurry image of a wizened face, wrinkles stretched back by a smile. That granny who had been such a quiet neighbor was on her feet and clutching her knitting basket.  
  
Julie clumsily pulled her headphones down around her neck.  
  
"We're here, my dear," the little old lady said. "You were so excited to get to Hawaii that you fell asleep for the last four hours of the journey."  
  
"Huh?" Julie gave her eyes a good rub with fisted hands and looked around to orient herself. Passengers were standing, gathering their things, and exiting while she was still curled against her seat in a pile of her own rubble. She'd been drawing when she dozed off so there were colored pencils all over her lap and in the crevices between the seats.  
  
"Do you need help?" the old lady asked.  
  
Already on her feet and frantically gathering her things, Julie shook her head. "No, no, don't trouble yourself. I've got it." It was embarrassing enough that she'd fallen asleep like a baby in a car seat, and having to be assisted by a tiny elderly lady would just make her feel more pathetic.  
  
Consequently, she was the last passenger to exit and the attendants had run out of silk flower leis. Her heart thudded loudly inside her chest as she made her way up the narrow gate, endured the tedium of security and baggage claim. Would he be waiting for her in the terminal?  
  
An unmistakable shock of candy apple hair stood out even from a distance and Julie's feet stepped faster.  
  
"Aloha, Jewels," Akaba greeted, pulling down his dark glasses to reveal his colored contacts and smiling in his subtle way.  
  
"It's good to see you, Akaba." She smiled warmly at him but soon her eyes were darting to his left and right, searching. Nobody familiar was there. "So, uh, where is…"  
  
"Rehearsal," he answered, having detected the end of her question. "Kotaro and the others are getting in some last minute practice for tonight's show. Because I was always playing guitar while they were goofing off, I'm the lucky one who gets to pick you up."  
  
"Oh," Julie said, trying not to sound let down. Seeing Akaba for the first time in two months was still a wonderful feeling.  
  
His red eyes gave her the quick head-to-toe. "You didn't get lei'd?"  
  
It took Julie a few blinks before she deciphered the question. "Oh, yeah, they ran out before they got to me," she chuckled. "Why? Is it a big faux pas to be seen around here without one?"  
  
This was something she genuinely wanted to know, but the look it earned from Akaba was about as close to laughter as she had ever seen him get. "It's not a faux pas. And if it was, you wouldn't have to make it." He reached into a nice shopping bag that Julie hadn't noticed before and brought out a necklace, not of silk flowers but real pink hibiscus, and placed it over her head.  
  
"They're beautiful," she said. A hot blush was creeping its way into her cheeks. "And so fragrant."  
  
He gave a curt nod. "Glad you like them, Jewels. Now, let's get you to your hotel so you can get settled, shower, and eat before the show."  
  
"Okay." She had just noticed the gaggle of young girls, clustered at a polite distance, who were whispering and giggling and pointing at Akaba. Her blush burned. "Let's go."  
  
They took a taxi to the hotel, and much to Julie's relief, it was not a long drive. After seven and a half hours in an airplane, she felt stiff and grungy. A shower and a change of clothes would do a world of good.  
  
Akaba didn't say anything during the twenty-minute drive, which wasn't a bit unusual, but for some reason Julie felt acutely aware of his presence. Or rather, she was acutely aware of Kotaro's absence. It almost felt like she hadn't yet arrived.  
  
The hotel was a thing of beauty, even independent of its paradisiacal backdrop, an enormous white curve of building with a row of Corinthian columns reaching three stories high in front of the entrance.  
  
"How much did you pay for my room?" Julie asked, lips puckering suspiciously as she stepped out of the taxi and took in the unobstructed sight of her lodgings.  
  
"It's nothing for you to be concerned with," Akaba answered coolly. He retrieved her suitcase from the trunk and paid the driver then led the way into the lobby.  
  
Once she was checked in, they boarded a gilded elevator bound for the ninth floor. "Your room is right next to the suite the band is staying in," Akaba said. "I'm going to leave the extra card key with you, in case you need access for any reason." The elevator dinged and he walked with her to the very end of a door-lined hallway. "Nine-oh-nine is yours. Now, I have to get back to the guys. Think you'll be okay getting to the show on your own?"  
  
"I think so," she said. "Say hi to…" She paused. "Everyone for me. And I guess I'll see you after the concert?"  
  
"Just come backstage as soon as it's over. Later, Jewels."  
  
"Yeah, later."  
  
There was just under three hours until the concert started, enough time to get herself cleaned up, fed, and dressed, with enough left over to stretch her legs out on the balcony. Travel brochures did not do this island justice. The setting sun streaked marmalade orange over the surface of the Pacific Ocean and only a distant fringe of rain clouds marred the coral-colored sky.  
  
Maybe tomorrow she would get to spend some time on the beach with Kotaro. Akaba could come too if he wanted. It would be just like those carefree summers she remembered.  
  
She covered a giggle at the memory of twelve-year old Kotaro trying to split a watermelon with his foot rather than a bat, only to send it flying into the ocean, and leaving them and their friends without dessert. Of course, at the time she just shook her head and sighed in exasperation. But in retrospect, his idiocy was kind of… cute.  
  
It was time to go to the show.  
  
Girls, scads of them, filled the seats in the auditorium. Oh, there were boys there too, but they sank into the background. They weren't the ones squeaking with barely contained excitement and wearing homemade t-shirts that said _Marry me, Kotaro!_ in surprisingly good Japanese.  
  
Julie's stomach clenched as if being squeezed by a giant’s fist. This was exhilarating, surreal, nerve-wracking all at once. There might not have been enough fans to fill a huge venue like Budokan, but they were passionately devoted, shouting their love for the band and wearing it on hats and shirts and buttons. And the most popular of the quartet was plainly obvious.  
  
After claiming her seat in the front row, between two teenage girls in full I (Heart) Kotaro gear, Julie found herself wishing that she had at least worn her Daddy Long Legs shirt. Her white cotton dress was totally unsuited for this crowd, and actually, she realized, unsuited for any rock concert. Why had she felt compelled to wear her prettiest outfit? She was the band's first and biggest fan, for crying out loud!  
  
The house lights went out and the fangirls screamed. A screen covering the stage illuminated to reveal the silhouettes of the four former Bando Spiders and the sound of Akaba's first strum poured from the speakers. Slowly, the screen rolled up.  
  
Julie's heart was in her throat.  
  
There he was, the boy who kicked watermelons into the sea and wasted precious timeouts to share stories with the opposition, Sasaki Kotaro. Tight jeans hugged his long, whippet-thin legs, but his shirt was loose, fully unbuttoned to reveal his lightly tanned chest and stomach.  
  
The drum and bass guitar joined in. Kotaro opened his mouth and the girls went wild. The voice of an angel cut through the shrieks and squeals like a hot knife through butter. No CD, no MP3 could compare to the real thing.  
  
Daddy Long Legs, all of them, not just Kotaro, were in top form. All of those songs that Julie had only heard in their embryonic stages were given full life on that stage in front of her. Whenever the lyrics broke for a guitar solo, Kotaro whipped a comb from his back pocket and preened, causing his fans to giggle and cheer. To them it must have seemed like a stage affectation.  
  
Kick Shock was the first song they performed and the last, a vociferously demanded encore. When the screen lowered for good and the house lights came on, the entire audience stood up and roared in approval. Several female fans hurled things onto the stage, including what Julie was pretty darn sure were panties.  
  
Now she was about to go back stage and be as close to him as she used to be. Gorgeous as his singing voice was, it was the sound of him just talking, saying something is 'smart,' that she had missed so much this summer.  
  
And if Kotaro did have even a trace of doubt that she supported him, Julie was going to set him straight, make him know that she believed in him. With all of her heart.  
  
She wove her way between the chattering, exit-bound masses as quickly as she could, heading for the stage door in the back. A large man with thick arms crossed over his chest was standing guard, but he opened the door and let Julie through when she flashed her backstage pass.  
  
"Dressing room's at the end of the hall," he said in a gravelly voice.  
  
Julie dashed, awkwardly in the strapped sandals she'd stupidly worn, and skidded to a stop outside the door.  
  
They must not be ready to let people back, she figured based on the fact that another girl was already waiting. The stranger was pretty, smooth-skinned and slender with a long whip of black hair down her back and a backstage pass like a badge of honor on her ample breast. Her face was remarkably unemotional for someone about to meet a rock and roll band, and it made Julie itch with curiosity.  
  
"Are you a friend of the band?" she asked. The girl looked at her and raised a thinly plucked eyebrow, but said nothing. Maybe she didn't speak Japanese. In her most careful English, Julie tried again. "My name is Julie Sawai. Nice to meet you."  
  
The girl's lips curled at the corners. "Jessica Coburn," she said, extending her hand.  
  
There was a vaguely insincere quality to her smile that was consistent with someone who had to wear a pleasant demeanor as part of her job. Must be a reporter, Julie figured as she shook Miss Coburn's hand.  
  
It made her feel happier than she'd care to admit that the only other person waiting to go backstage was from the media. Her insides twisted uncomfortably at the thought of having to share her Kotaro reunion with some teenybopper whose clothing bore a profession of love to him.  
  
The door opened just wide enough for Akaba to stick his red head out. "Ah, Julie, Jessica. Everyone is decent now so you can come on in." He stepped back and the door opened all the way.  
  
Julie held her breath as she followed Jessica over the threshold. She could hear Kotaro's boisterous laugh and a moment later she saw him, standing in front of her with a huge smile. To hell with restraint! She was just going to go throw her arms around him in a hug befitting her very best friend.  
  
But before she could act on the impulse, that girl Jessica flung herself into Kotaro and, shockingly, he embraced her. Kissed her. Let her coil around him like a pet snake. He didn't even notice that Julie was there until he had to come up for air.  
  
"Oh, hey Julie," he said a bit too cordially, not the way she remembered. "Have you met my girlfriend?"


	5. Chapter 5

 

Track 5: I Want the One I Can’t Have

* * *

  
  
"Jessica is… your girlfriend?" The question came out of Julie's lips in a tone similar to a cancer patient asking, 'it's… malignant?'  
  
Kotaro, ever oblivious, beamed proudly. "Isn't she cute?"  
  
Though Julie had assessed the girl as attractive when she thought she was a reporter, looking at her now, wrapped around Kotaro like a mink stole, she couldn't imagine anything less cute. It didn't help when the girl shrugged out of her sensible jacket to reveal a tight red halter-top. But by far the most unsettling thing about Jessica Coburn was her plastic smile, which looked almost sinister as she nuzzled it against his jaw.  
  
Visceral dislike rose inside Julie's stomach like the upwelling lava of Mauna Loa, but was held inside by an icy flash of guilt. She had no right to hate this girl she barely knew, so why was her immediate gut reaction pure loathing? Because she was rubbing against Kotaro like some damn cat? Or because Kotaro seemed to be enjoying it so much?  
  
"My Kouta is so cute," Jessica purred in broken Japanese.  
  
"She's still just learning the language," Kotaro said, smiling like an idiot as he pulled her against him.  
  
Julie already had the distinct impression that their relationship was not built on conversation. She swallowed around a hardening lump of magma in her throat and forced a smile that she didn't really feel. "Well, congratulations. You two seem… very happy."  
  
"Very happy," Jessica repeated in her terrible Japanese. Her hands were fiddling with Kotaro's belt like she was trying to get it undone. Was she going to undress him and start screwing him right in front of everyone? The trapped heat inside Mount Julie seared painfully.  
  
Fortunately, Akaba had just joined them and his icy aura soothed her somewhat. "Let's try to keep the lewdness to a minimum." He jabbed Jessica's hand with the head of his guitar. "No hanky-panky," he said in cold English.  
  
Whether he had done it for her sake or not, Julie was supremely grateful for Akaba's intervention. "So, uh, what's the plan?" she asked, having no idea what to expect as she'd never been backstage at a concert before.  
  
"Private party," said Akaba. "Back at the hotel. You are, of course, invited, Jewels."  
  
Although she had asked the question, Julie paid no attention to the answer, too distracted by the vile sight of Kotaro engaged in an undignified lip-lock with his bimbo. Again, guilt stabbed her.  
  
 _I don't know her. I can't judge her. Kotaro is my friend, my best friend. I should want him to be happy. And if this girl…_  
  
"Are you okay, Jewels?" Akaba's voice cut into her thoughts. "You're grinding your teeth pretty hard there. Something bothering you?"  
  
She hadn't noticed that her jaw was clenched like a bear trap and relaxed her muscles as soon as he pointed it out. "I'm fine, perfectly fine, great even. Just trying to, uh, un-pop my ears. From the plane…" Her excuse was so lame it wouldn’t have fooled a toddler. "So, you said something about a party?"  
  
Akaba pulled his glasses halfway down his nose and impassively scrutinized her, perhaps trying to decide whether or not to push the matter further. "I think you should share a car with me," he finally said. "You look like you could use a calm ride back to the hotel." The word 'calm' here clearly translated to 'free from disgusting tongue-wrestling.'  
  
"Yeah, that sounds good," she replied. Julie had more than a few questions about Kotaro's new lady love, and getting Akaba on his own was her best shot at answers.  
  
Bassist and drummer were already migrating towards the door and with one had on her back, Akaba shepherded Julie in the same direction, making sure to put Kotaro and Jessica behind them. He guided her through the hallways and around two or three corners before they reached a large metal door that opened into an alley behind the auditorium. Two shiny black cars were waiting.  
  
The first car was taken by first two musicians and drove off. Akaba opened a door on the second and waited for Julie to get in before taking a seat next to her. Her whole body tensed in anticipation of a third car arriving in time to carry the two remaining people, but none came. The sound of the door on her side opening made her stomach twist.  
  
"Looks like we'll be squeezing in with you guys," Kotaro said, sliding in next to Julie and forcing her into the middle seat.  
  
"There isn't enough room for four back here," Akaba said. "One of you two will have to ride in front with the driver."  
  
Kotaro pouted. "It's not that long a drive. Can't Jess ride on my lap?" She was already there, straddling his hips and kissing his neck, making Julie nauseous.  
  
"The law requires all occupants be properly fastened by a seatbelt," said Akaba, curt as a safety manual. "One of you, in the front."  
  
"Fine, fine," Kotaro huffed. "I'll sit up front." With some effort he managed to pry Jessica off of him and squeeze himself out the door. Once everyone was settled and belted, the car started to move.  
  
For the first several minutes, nobody said anything. Julie had situated more towards Akaba's side to keep as much space as possible between her and the love bunnies, and remained so even after they were separated. Jessica eyed her suspiciously and she leaned away further, so much that she was now pressing snuggly against Akaba.  
  
"Oh, I understand now," Jessica said, nodding and smiling coyly at Julie. "You are Akaba girlfriend?"  
  
Julie was stunned, but it was Kotaro who reacted first, utterly riled. "She's not Akaba's girlfriend!" he barked, twisting in his seat so that all three in the back could see his jeering face. "Julie. Akaba. Not. Dating!" His English was about as good as Jessica's Japanese.  
  
So that one-sided animosity was still burning. Julie sighed. In the past she had blamed his loud objections to her dating Akaba on his not-at-all-secret desire to date her himself. But apparently it was just another outgrowth of his disdain for the guy and she felt pretty damn self-absorbed for thinking otherwise.  
  
She cleared her throat and explained in simple English. "Akaba and I are just friends." To emphasize the point, she scooted away from him as he let out a soft, "fuu."  
  
It wasn't the end of the matter. Jessica was frowning sourly, her eyes moving back and forth between Kotaro and Julie. She must not be fully schooled on the old rivalry, and therefore her boyfriend's statement could be interpreted as jealousy and be quite an insult to her.  
  
Julie wasn't sure why but she felt compelled to add, "Kotaro and I are also just friends." The words stung on their way out of her mouth.  
  
Jessica looked pleased. "So you two never…?"  
  
"Never anything," Julie assured. "Never sex, never date, never kiss." That one almost kiss need not be mentioned.  
  
Everything seemed to have been cleared up, but the rest of the drive still passed silently. When the hotel was within sight, Jessica became animated again.  
  
"I set up the party during concert. You will like, very sexy!"  
  
That explained why she wasn't next to Julie in the front row. She hadn't even gone to hear Kotaro sing. One thing Julie was absolutely sure of: if _she_ were Kotaro's girlfriend she would never miss a chance to come to one of his performances, especially to set up some stupid party.  
  
As soon as they all got out of the car, Jessica reattached herself to Kotaro and the two spent the elevator ride to the ninth floor engaged in tongue-to-tongue combat. Julie spent it suppressing her gag reflex.  
  
The sound of loud music and louder laughter was audible even before the suite door was opened. Inside the party was already in full swing. At least twenty hip, young people (it was hard to tell exactly how many with just the flicker of strobes for lighting) were dancing, joking, and enjoying copious volumes of alcohol. Bottles of gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and scotch were on a table along with other liquors and mixers, and there was also a plastic tub filled with ice and beers.  
  
The primary activity at this party was pretty clear.  
  
Without even bothering to greet anyone, Jessica dragged Kotaro by the hand back to an empty armchair so they could resume what they had been doing in the elevator. This was going to be a long, long party and Julie wasn't sure she could stand it.  
  
"Can I get you a drink, Jewels?" Akaba asked her.  
  
She responded with a halfhearted smile. "Actually, I have a bit of a headache. It's been a long day. I think I'll just retire to my room. The show was great, though. Enjoy your celebration." Her eyes, by some masochistic instinct, went back for a last look at Kotaro and Jessica. "Why doesn't she just unhinge her jaw and swallow him?" she muttered under her breath.  
  
Akaba apparently heard. "Because it would mess up her makeup," he answered, deadpan. "You sure you don't want to stick around? I have aspirin."  
  
"Thanks, but I'm okay," she sighed. "I think I just need a good night of sleep."  
  
"Okay," he said. "Best to listen to what your body is telling you. Tomorrow will be calmer. We'll relax on the beach."  
  
"Sound good," she lied. The prospect of a day at the beach, so appealing when she first arrived, was now drained of all its charm. Kotaro would be all over that Jessica and wouldn't be her best friend having fun with her like they used to.  
  
The walls in the hotel must have been built thick, because when Julie was sealed inside her own room, the party next door was only the faintest roar. She didn't turn on the light, just crumpled into a pitiful heap on the neatly made bed.  
  
"Stupid Kotaro," she mumbled into the crisp pillowcase. "Stupid, stupid…" There was a physical desire to cry in the corner of her eyes, but no tears would come out, probably because she knew she really had no right to feel sorry for herself.  
  
After several minutes, there was a quiet knock on the door, accompanied by cool voice. "May I come in?"  
  
"Yeah, hold on," Julie answered. She sat up from her fetal position a bit too fast and the downward rush of blood left her lightheaded and clumsy as she went to let in her guest.  
  
"How's the headache?" Akaba asked.  
  
Julie's face scrunched slightly. "Headache? Oh right. It's feeling a little better. Did you come over to ask me that? I told you I would be fine…"  
  
He took his time turning on the light and sitting down on the bed. "I know, and that's not the only reason I am here. I have to talk to you about your key."  
  
"My key? You want back the extra key to the suite you gave me?" It was odd of Akaba to make himself comfortable just to retrieve a card key, but Julie obliged without question.  
  
"Not the key to the suite," Akaba said just as Julie was digging through her purse for it. She stopped and looked at him, her head tilted, and he continued. "I am talking about the key of your personal song."  
  
A music metaphor, of course. She flopped backwards onto the bed next to him and gazed up at the ceiling as she asked, "What about it?"  
  
"It's changed," he said, not laying back with her like Kotaro would have, but maintaining his upright perch on the edge. "You normally go about life in a major key, very bright and upbeat. But ever since you met us backstage, you've shifted into a minor key. You're like a dirge, Jewels, and I can't shake the feeling that it is all due to a certain kicker."  
  
She'd been moping, and not hiding it well. That was the message that Akaba was conveying, albeit in his own strange language. Julie had missed her opportunity in the car, but now she was being offered another chance to get the full story on Jessica Coburn.  
  
"Why didn't you tell me that Kotaro had a girlfriend? In your letter or an email, or when you met me at the airport? Why did you just let it slap me in the face?" Her first question came out a lot whinier than intended.  
  
Akaba responded with a small shrug. "Fuu, I didn't think it was my news to tell. And I had no idea it would upset you so much."  
  
Julie looked up at him and answered squeakily. "Of course I'm upset. Kotaro is my…" She had to stop because she didn't know how to end the sentence. "He's Kotaro," she sighed. "I've known him for so long… I guess I never imagined him getting a girlfriend."  
  
"You are not alone in that," Akaba said. "That guy's social style has always been so staccato, no grace at all with the ladies. But I guess you know that first hand."  
  
A soft groan gurgled from Julie's throat. "So do they do anything besides kissing?"  
  
"Well they barely understand each other's language, so that sort of rules out spirited discussions…"  
  
That wasn't the sort of thing that she was actually wondering about. "I mean physically," she self-consciously blurted. "Have… have they gone… you know, further than kissing?"  
  
Akaba scratched his neck and looked away, answering the question without words. When Julie made a tiny croak of disbelief, he sighed. "She's his girlfriend. I'm not crazy about Jessica either, but she seems to keep Kotaro happy, or distracted at least. Do you know how depressed he was after you rejected his confession? He needed something…"  
  
Julie wrenched herself upright again. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up there," she interrupted. "After I _what_ his _what_?"  
  
The two friends stared at each other, both as if the other was crazy. Akaba seemed to be waiting for her to admit she had any idea what he was talking about. But of course she didn't. "At the airport," he reminded. "After we boarded the plane he told me he couldn't leave without telling you how he feels and ran out to catch you. When he came back, he said you'd turned him down."  
  
This alternate account of what happened between her and Kotaro at Narita Airport hit Julie like a bucket of ice water dumped on her head. Her mouth gaped as she searched for words. "That was supposed to be a love confession? He asked me if I thought he should really go to America or stay in Japan. At no point did he mention love, or dating, or his feelings."  
  
"Fuu…" Akaba shook his head. "He told me he confessed. I really should have known better than to accept it at surface level."  
  
Julie felt her mental state sliding by centimeters towards hysteria. "Of course I told him he should go to America," she croaked. "What else could I say? But to him that was a rejection. And I was so sure he would resent me if I told him I didn't want him to go. Oh god! I inadvertently threw him at sleazy Jessica!" She pressed her fisted hands against the sides of her skull and rolled across the bed. "Stupid Kotaro! Why did he have to choose this one time not to be straightforward?"  
  
"He really is an idiot sometimes," Akaba mused.  
  
Having done enough writhing, Julie rolled herself off the bed and stood tall. "I have to go and clear this up. I have to tell him that I didn't understand what he was really asking and get that skank off him." She started towards the door, but Akaba stopped her.  
  
"Wait," he said. "Before you go barging in, I have to ask: do you want to date Kotaro?"  
  
Her posture lost some of its confidence and she turned to face him with her arms folded over her stomach. "I guess I hadn't really thought about it. I just want things to be like they've always been."  
  
"You mean you want Kotaro's time and attention, but you only want him as your best friend?"  
  
Hearing Akaba describe the situation, Julie suddenly felt like a monster. "You're right," she uttered. "I can't break up his current relationship, no matter how distasteful I find it, unless I seriously want to start one with him. And I just… I don't know if that's what I want or not. Dating Kotaro would be…"  
  
"Strange?" Akaba offered.  
  
"Not so much strange as just… different. Kotaro and I have been friends for over half our lives, since we met in ballet class when we were eight." Akaba crooked is head curiously, a rare gesture for him, and Julie sighed wistfully. "That's a story for another day, I promise."  
  
Focused back on the matter at hand, Akaba tapped his chin pensively. "So you are afraid that if you were to date Kotaro it would be awkward?"  
  
"And if it didn't work out it would ruin the friendship we've built," she amended.  
  
"Which explains why you never said yes any of the times he asked you out. But, of course, you didn't say no either. And you did write Kick Shock about him."  
  
Julie flushed. "He doesn't know that I wrote it," she said, slightly embarrassed. "Nobody does except you and the principal, who I let take the blame, er… credit."  
  
"The point is, you do have some feelings for Kotaro," said Akaba. "And now you are left with two options. You can tell him that you like him, but there are an awful lot of risks attached. He could choose to stay with Jessica, making things between all parties very uncomfortable. And even if he does leave her to date you, there is always the possibility of it not working out, which would destroy any chance of you two staying friends."  
  
The sheer weight of that situation made Julie's shoulders sag. "And what's my other option?" she asked glumly.  
  
"As the Beatles sang, let it be," he answered coolly. "Leave his relationship with Jessica to its natural course, and carry on your own life without dwelling on 'what ifs.' Maybe this misunderstanding was an act of fate."  
  
"But you aren't into things like fate, are you? That's more Kotaro's domain."  
  
"It might surprise you, the things he and I have in common." As Akaba said this, his eyes glimmered like dancing red koi, for only a single moment, and then returned to normal. However brief, it sent a tickling wave of goose bumps up Julie's arms.  
  
"So you really think it's fate for me not to date Kotaro?" she asked softly.  
  
He wasn't even looking at her anymore. His head was bowed, his fingers wrapped around the fretboard of an invisible guitar and pressing out the chords of a silent song as his other hand strummed. "That, I can't answer," he said in an almost melodic voice. "But I do think the friendship between you and Kotaro has better odds of surviving you two dating other people than it does of surviving you two dating each other and breaking up. Frankly, I don't want to see either of you hurt like that."  
  
That's right. Kotaro could wind up getting very hurt if she acted carelessly. Julie clutched the front of her dress, right over the spot where her heart was pounding out a cadence that would give Sakai and his drums a run for their money.  
  
"Have you decided what you are going to do?" Akaba asked. He had finished his imaginary song and gotten to his feet.  
  
Julie's fist unclenched and she smoothed the wrinkles it left in the white cotton fabric. "Tonight," she said. "I am going to enjoy a party hosted by my favorite rock band."  
  
Akaba nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. But remember you owe me an embarrassing story about Kotaro in tights." He opened the door, and together they went to rejoin the party next door.  
  
The dancing was sloppier than it had been when she left, alcohol already working its magic on the revelers. Conversations were louder, lewder, and were punctuated with more snorting laughter.  
  
Jessica was still latched onto Kotaro like a hungry lamprey, though at some point during Julie's absence she had shed her tight jeans in favor of even tighter, ridiculously short shorts with a waist so low it revealed her garish red thong. Her arms were threaded into Kotaro's shirt, tickling him mercilessly and making him laugh around their seemingly endless make-out session.  
  
Julie felt a sudden need to get herself a drink.  
  
The young man standing at the bar area couldn't have been twenty-one yet, but neither was she. He welcomed her with a smooth grin. "What sort of drink can I get for such a cute girl?"  
  
Knowing very little about alcohol, she just said, "Surprise me."  
  
It took less than a second for the bartender to decide for her. "I'll make you a Blue Hawaiian. It's seasonal, local, and it matches your hair." His hands moved faster than Julie's eyes could keep up with—this underage guy knew his stuff!—and the final product was a tall blue beverage garnished with a pineapple spear and a miniature umbrella.  
  
"Thanks," Julie said. She took a cautious sip through a straw. It tasted very sweet and not very strong. The sound of Jessica and Kotaro's mingled giggles wafted across the room and she took a long drag, as if the straw was a cigarette—not that she'd ever smoked, of course.  
  
 _Let is be. Let it be. Let it be._  
  
Her brain repeated the phrase like a mantra as her lips effortlessly drained her glass. That Blue Hawaiian felt good in her belly. It was cold, but it made her feel warm, more relaxed. Another one couldn't hurt. Every time she caught a glimpse of those two making out she just took a long gulp and her feelings got a little duller.  
  
By the end of her third drink, she wasn't even bothered by them anymore.  
  
She spied a fiery mop of hair a few meters away, with an accompanying pair of eyes watching her anxiously from behind dark glasses. Legs feeling a bit clumsy, she waved her arm in a wide arc over her head and called him over to her. "Hey, Akaba! C'mere!"  
  
He started towards her with small, slow steps. Rather than wait for the dawdler, she decided to meet him halfway, but on her very first step one foot snagged on the other. Akaba was in front of her in two quick strides, just in time to catch her before she fell. It was a head rush, but for some reason it made her laugh and laugh.  
  
"Akaba!" she bubbled, still clinging to his sturdy body for support. "I think I'm back in a major key!"  
  
"I think you're drunk," he said.  
  
"Really?" She batted her eyes innocently at him. "No, I'm not drunk. I'm just happy because I've realized how much fun drinking is!" Another fit of giggles took her but most of it was absorbed by Akaba's shirt.  
  
"You've only been at the party for half an hour, Jewels. How much did you have to drink?"  
  
Inexplicably, Julie's brain couldn't come up with the name of that number right after two, so she held up her fingers instead. "This many Blue Hawaiians! But I only took a sip when I felt sad about stupid Toukarou. And now I don't feel sad anymore! Let it be! In major key!"  
  
Her knees wobbled like a baby deer's and Akaba steadied her. "Come on, let me get you some water so you don't get dehydrated," he said.  
  
"You're such a worrywart," she scoffed. "This is a party not a football practice. 'Don't get dehydrated,'" she imitated in her best Akaba voice. "You know what? You know what? I have decided that if Kotaro wants to do sex with that… that thong girl, then maybe I'll just have to find a lover of my own."  
  
Yes, yes, that's just what she'd do. She would find herself a handsome lover and from there it wouldn't take long for her to get over Kotaro. Ah! The perfect candidate was right in front of her face.  
  
"Akaba! Of course! You can be my boyfriend. Whaddaya say? Wanna spent the night with me, Akaba?" She stretched up and whispered in his ear. "You wanna have sex with me? Heheheh." It was supposed to be her most sultry voice but it dissolved into giggles at the end.  
  
Akaba shook his head. "Jewels, you don't really want to have sex with me, the rum wants you to have sex with me. Please let me take you back to your room and get you to bed before you do anything more you might regret."  
  
"Go back to my room and take me to bed?" she snickered. "You're the boss."  
  
He started to lead her through the small crowd, arms protectively around her. She looked down, and to her delight, she realized there was still one last slurp of cocktail left in the glass she was holding. Before she could lift it to her mouth, Akaba snatched it away. "You're done for the night," he said.  
  
The edges of his words were starting to blur into the other party noises. He stopped them in front of the bar so he could snap at the guy making drinks, but Julie could only make out bits and pieces. She definitely heard the words Blue Hawaiian, and she was pretty sure the question, how much rum? came up, but her drowning brain couldn't put the two things together. The bartender gave an answer that was all mumbles and Akaba growled something, and it seemed like the end of the conversation.  
  
All that liquor in her belly wasn't feeling so good now, like a flask of volatile compounds being sloshed around as part of some awful chemistry experiment. An explosion was imminent. "Akaba," she whimpered once they'd breached the hallway. "I think I'm going to barf."  
  
"You have about ten shots of rum in you so I don't blame you," he said, a bit more intelligible now that they were alone. "Just hold it in for a few more seconds."  
  
The moment he got the door opened, Julie staggered through and scrambled to the toilet. A tidal wave of blue vomit left her stomach and she groaned, but she could tell it wasn't over yet. The sea was still stormy, far worse than it had been on the plane that morning.  
  
"Jewels?" Akaba asked from outside the bathroom door.  
  
"Close the door," she moaned. "I don't want you to see this."  
  
He closed it and almost immediately, a muffled yell leaked through.  
  
"What the hell did you do to her?" It was a voice she couldn't mistake for any other.  
  
"Kotaro?" she muttered, and the door burst open so violently that it was obvious he had kicked it in.  
  
"Julie, are you okay?" He stooped over her and pulled her bangs off of her face. His voice sounded worried, but that could have easily been another distortion of the booze. Although his body wasn't touching hers, it was still close enough for her to feel the heat radiating from him. That was real.  
  
Outside, Akaba was trying to explain. "Fuu~, I didn't do anything to her. That idiot bartender gave her double strength cocktails."  
  
"I'll kill 'im!" Kotaro roared. "That guy just made the most un-smart move of his life!"  
  
Julie felt the warmth behind her start to pull away and reached out an arm to grab his leg. She caught the hem of his jeans, the only part loose enough to hold onto. "Don't," she uttered miserably. "I chose to keep going back for more. So don't hurt anyone."  
  
His body heat returned and became actual physical contact when he crouched down and rubbed her back with a large hand. His voice came out softer than normal. "Do you want me to stay here with you until you feel better?"  
  
"Only if you want to," she said, hugging her toilet.  
  
"Okay," he said quietly. Then his trademark boldness resurged and he barked at Akaba. "You can go play your guitar, Guitar Boy. I'll make sure she gets to bed okay."  
  
"On her side," Akaba said sternly. "I'm going to check back in on you later, Jewels, to make sure you're okay. Drink plenty of water if you can keep it down."  
  
Her brain was feeling a little less murky already, now that she'd pumped some of the alcohol out of her body. She'd heard the exchange between Kotaro and Akaba, and she heard the sound of the room door shutting.  
  
"Are you done puking?" Kotaro asked her.  
  
She took a deep breath and then nodded. "Yeah, I think so."  
  
He helped her up from the bathroom floor and walked her over to the bed, very gingerly to avoid any jarring movements that might cause her to spew again. He even folded down the comforter and took off her shoes for her. "I'm going to go get you that water. Need me to help you get tucked in first?"  
  
"I can manage," she told him. Why was he doing this? Why was he torturing her with sweetness that she knew, after tonight, would all go to another girl? It was only because she was drunk and he pitied her. Oh god, she was drunk, stinking drunk. Was she even saying the things she thought she was saying?  
  
Her insides heaved as she lurched onto the bed and crawled under the comforter. She could hear a running faucet, her hydration being prepared. Julie wanted to keep her eyes open as long as she could. This might very well be the last time she ever had her best friend all to herself and she felt too wretched to even enjoy it. Lead flowed sluggishly through her arteries where her blood should be. Every part of her body was growing heavier with each heartbeat, so no matter how hard she fought to keep her eyelids open, she just couldn't do it.  
  
She didn't even get to see Kotaro's face before falling asleep.  
  
Despite how easy it was for her to fall asleep, it wasn't peaceful slumber. While she was sleeping, she dreamed about lying awake in bed, all alone and endlessly tired, but unable to have even a moment of rest. There was also a ridiculous lingering horror that she might have propositioned Akaba for sex. She tossed from side to side until…  
  
Light stabbed her eyes like twin knives, shooting pain deep into her already throbbing head. Rum was liquid evil as far as she was concerned. Her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton and her stomach felt raw and bloated. She rolled over to her other side to escape the onslaught of the wicked sun and gasped when the action brought her face-to-face with a pair of wide-open grey eyes.  
  
"Morning, drunk-shine," Kotaro chirped, smiling just slightly.  
  
Julie groaned. "What are you doing in my bed?"  
  
Kotaro stretched his arms behind his head and crossed his long legs nonchalantly. At least he wasn't under the covers with her. "I was going to leave once you were settled for the night, but you just kept flailing and moaning."  
  
"You stayed here all night?" she stammered. "You dummy! How do you suppose Jessica is going to feel about you sharing a bed with another woman?"  
  
"She knows you're my best friend," he said. Then his brow wrinkled. "At least, I think she knows. I had Akaba explain it to her since his English is better than mine."  
  
"You still… consider me your best friend?" she uttered. "Even after what happened… what I said at the airport?"  
  
His slight smile expanded into a full boyish grin. "Of coarse I do, Julie. It stung at the time, but I think it was something I needed to get through my head. You will never see me as a man, only as a friend. But that's okay. When you told me you didn't want me to stay in Japan with you, you were really saying that I need to get over my silly infatuation with you and find a girl who actually wants me. And I did. Jessica."  
  
A pain totally unrelated to her hangover ached inside the center Julie's chest. "You really like her, huh?"  
  
"What's not to like? She's hot. She's smart… I think. As far as I can tell, she's funny. And she's totally crazy about me." Kotaro reached over and tucked a strand of blue hair behind her ear and it gave her a strange feeling of déjà vu. "I really want you and Jessica to be friends," he said. "She doesn't speak a lot of Japanese, I know. But she's trying to learn. You could help her. And I'm sure she'd love to help you learn more English. She's helping me."  
  
Julie shrank into the cocoon of comforter. "I don't know if our schedules will really allow much time together, me and her…" It was a weak excuse, but she didn't want Kotaro to know her real misgivings about the situation.  
  
"Oh, didn't Akaba tell you?" you said excitedly. "Daddy Long Legs is going to be the featured act on the maiden voyage of a brand new luxury cruise ship! From Honolulu to Los Angeles in a week, departure is two days from today. And you're coming!"  
  
"I am?" This was definitely the first information anyone had given her about it.  
  
Kotaro's head bobbed energetically. "Your room is already booked. And it's right next to mine and Jessica's. Smart, huh? This will be the perfect chance for the two of you to become friends. Isn't it great?"  
  
Lying convincingly to Kotaro had never been easy for her. "Yeah, sounds wonderful," she said, with absolutely no enthusiasm. At least today she had an excuse. "Sorry I'm not more peppy. It's the hangover."  
  
"I know, I know," he said. "Tomorrow you will be so giddy you won't be able to shut up about it, I guarantee."  
  
Wanna bet? Julie thought, but didn't dare say it.  
  
He was still smiling like a fool. It should be a crime to look so cute while breaking a girl's heart. "For today, while you're recovering from your bender, I rented a movie with Japanese subtitles that will get you into the cruise spirit. You like _Titanic_ , right?"  
  
Julie buried her face in her pillow to muffle a low groan. This had to be a bad omen.  



	6. Chapter 6

 

Track 6: Maneater

* * *

  
  
"How about here?" Julie pointed at the storefront in case her English wasn't clear enough.  
  
Jessica wrinkled her nose and curled down her lower lip, as if the vintage clothing store was emanating some foul odor that only she could smell.  
  
With a sigh, Julie pushed open the door and went inside anyways. She had kept a smile on while accompanying Jessica into seven different upscale clothiers, and even gave her the thumbs up when she tried on all those eighty-dollar tank tops and two-hundred-dollar jeans that would only be considered hip for a matter of weeks. This was the only vintage store they had encountered and she wasn't going to let a snooty grimace keep her from enjoying it.  
  
The store wasn't big, but the inside was filled with treasure, like a mother's jewelry box is to a little girl. It reminded her of Red Threads, which was comforting. She could definitely use a dose of familiarity considering the surreal summer vacation she was having.  
  
It started normally—and boringly—enough, with Julie working full time and missing her best friend while he was being a rock singer halfway around the globe. Okay, maybe being friends with the members of an up-and-coming rock band wasn't exactly normal, but since it was happening so far away, it wasn't really playing a part in her daily life. He might as well have been on a family vacation in Okinawa.  
  
That was before she'd arrived in Hawaii.  
  
Now she was in the thick of it. She already knew that Daddy Long Legs, and especially Kotaro, were absolutely amazing, the kind of band that made you realize that music really was a form of magic. But now she'd gotten a glimpse of just how many other people knew it too and loved them. There were screaming fangirls and wild parties, the works.  
  
Yet the celebrity aspect wasn't even the most shocking development of the summer. That honor belonged to the young woman who had finally, grudgingly, entered the store.  
  
Looking at the girl objectively, which was more than a little difficult for Julie's biased eyes, it couldn't be denied that Jessica Coburn was very physically attractive. Slick black hair and almond-shaped eyes the color of oil slicks hinted at Asian ancestry not too far back on her family tree. Her hips were smaller than Julie's, but her chest noticeably bigger, and her limbs were long and thin and willowy. In short, she possessed all the bodily charms that drive men crazy.  
  
Jessica's personality, on the other hand, was a bit harder to get a read on. This was mostly due to the fact that her Japanese was dreadful beyond what one would expect from a beginner just starting to learn a new language. The way she mangled sentences almost sounded like she was trying to speak atrociously.  
  
Of course, if Julie had studied English more before coming to America it could have alleviated the situation tremendously. She was trying her hardest to improve through immersion.  
  
Even without being fluent in each other's language, though, Julie was getting the distinct impression that Jessica did not think much of her. And she clearly didn't think much of vintage clothing, with her skinny arms folded haughtily over her chest as she rolled her eyes at the racks and shelves of pre-owned merchandise.  
  
 _I am doing this for Kotaro_ , Julie reminded herself. _If I want to stay friends with him, I will have to get along with his… girlfriend_. Even in her thoughts, she choked on that word. The biggest impediment to her being friends with Jessica wasn't the language barrier or the major clash in fashion senses. It was the fact that Jessica was Kotaro's girlfriend.  
  
Why, Julie lamented, had she not realized her own budding feelings for him until she saw him wrapped around another girl? Until after he had moved on and no longer wanted her?  
  
Try as she might to convince herself that she was only interested in him now because he was off the market, it couldn't extinguish the excruciating ache she felt in the center of her chest any time Kotaro and Jessica kissed. And that was pretty much all they did whenever the two of them were together.  
  
A few meters away, Jessica's long, whip-like black ponytail swished. She was flicking through a rack of dresses from past decades, pausing on each just long enough to make a different face of disgust.  
  
How could the girl not find one thing to like in this store? Julie had already struck gold several times: A rare Geronimo Jackson tee for Akaba and a metal lunch box featuring an old television show called _Get Smart_ that she knew would make Kotaro grin. She even uncovered a gorgeous pair of oversized tortoiseshell sunglasses for herself, the perfect cruise accessory.  
  
Red leather pumps tapped out an impatient beat on the tile floor, Jessica's way of saying 'hurry up' that needed no translation.  
  
Sighing very softly, Julie went to the counter to pay. With the exception of these purchases, the day of shopping had not yielded spectacular results. If anything, the outing had only made Jessica frostier to her, now that it was clear that she didn't share the same enthusiasm for chasing the newest and most disposable fashion trends. And she hadn't really learned anything new about the girl. All she had was the little bit of info Kotaro had provided during their ominous viewing of Titanic the day before.  
  
Jessica was twenty-one years old, which explained how she was able to procure all that liquor for the party, and her birthday was, in Kotaro's words, "June-ish." He was also quite happy to share the fact that his girlfriend's bra size was 34D and that she was a great kisser, details Julie could have lived without. But other than that, he didn't have much to say, and soon he was too distracted by the shocking turn of events that the Titanic was actually sinking. Apparently, he had never made it past the halfway point of the film before. Or paid close attention in history class for that matter.  
  
This was just a slow start though, and Julie was determined not to give up. Beginning tomorrow they would all be on a cruise ship together for a whole week, and she was going to make friends with Jessica even if it killed her.  
  
When the mismatched duo arrived back at the hotel, after a tensely silent cab ride, they went straight up to the ninth floor and caught Kotaro at the end of the hallway as he was unlocking the suite door. He turned at the sound of footsteps and beamed.  
  
Julie couldn't help but smile back at him, a rock star, but still the Kotaro she'd known for years. Then her grin wilted when Jessica launched herself into his arms and she realized, with a twinge of embarrassment, that she wasn't the one that adorable smile was aimed at.  
  
The making out commenced immediately and Julie's eyes raced to the floor for sanctuary. It didn't help much as she could still hear the revoltingly wet slurping and smacking noises. Would clamming her hands over her ears make it too obvious that she hated being a witness to this? Would they even notice? And of course they were blocking the entrance to her room as well.  
  
Near her feet were the five full shopping bags that Jessica had shed before pouncing on Kotaro. How could she afford so many expensive clothes? Wasn't she a college student? There were so many things she wanted to ask the girl if she only knew how to say them.  
  
"Hey, Julie." Kotaro managed to free his mouth long enough to speak. "You mind carrying Jess's stuff in? Her hands are a bit full here."  
  
She opened her mouth to say, in more polite phrasing, that Jess could pry her nasty hands away from him for the ten seconds it would take to carry her own damn bags, but Kotaro cut her off before she even made a sound, mumbling, "Thanks," as he and Jessica backed into the suite.  
  
Wearing a frown that she knew nobody would notice, Julie snatched up the shopping bags roughly and trudged in behind them. As she dumped them unceremoniously into an empty chair, she glimpsed Jess pulling a credit card from her tacky little purse and handing it to Kotaro, who tucked it into his wallet.  
  
So that's where her money came from.  
  
Angry flames licked under Julie's ribs and she breathed deeply for the small relieve it provided. _It doesn't concern me. This is between him and her. They have some sort of agreement._ Her attempts at self-soothing had mixed results. She wouldn't say anything, of course, but she still itched to know if Kotaro had any idea how much of his money Jessica was spending. Today alone she must have bought over two thousand dollars worth of clothes.  
  
As the kissing and groping resumed without a single word exchanged, Julie gritted her teeth and got out the door as quickly as possible. She could give Kotaro his gift sometime on the boat.  
  
It was meant as hyperbole when she first thought it, but right now she felt like befriending Jessica really just might be what killed her.  



	7. Chapter 7

 

Track 7: Tainted Love

* * *

  
  
The female fans showed up in droves to see Daddy Long Legs off, so many that they had to be kept at bay by one of the ship's security officers. But nothing would stop them from screaming their devotion from behind the barrier ropes, mostly for Kotaro, but the other members each had their own little cult following. Akaba's fan club was particularly visible, as a number of girls sported hair dyed his signature shade of candy apple red with contact lenses to match.  
  
He gave them a nod and a wave as he walked up the ramp and onto the boat, and they seemed satisfied. Kotaro, on the other hand, was soaking up the attention like a sponge in water. With little regard for the other passengers trying to board, he stopped halfway up the ramp, spun around and pointed a long finger at the gaggle of girls.  
  
"Just watch!" He shouted. "I'll show the world I'm the number one singer!" The last three words he said in English and his admirers shrieked with joy.  
  
Like a swooping hawk, Jessica was at his side, grabbing his arm possessively in her talons and dragging him the rest of the way onto the cruise ship. All he could do was flash his audience a sheepish smile over his shoulder and wave a bit awkwardly before his girlfriend tugged him out of their sights.  
  
Julie shook her head as she followed behind. If the girl was that bothered by loud declarations and public displays of enthusiasm, she sure picked the wrong guy to date.  
  
Her cabin on the boat was not huge, but it was cute, and clean since there hadn't been any previous occupants. A large vase of fresh Hawaiian flowers had been placed on the dresser; pink hibiscus, the same as the lei that Akaba had given her. There was also an enormous basket of local fruit.  
  
A twinge of guilt stitched in Julie's stomach. She couldn't growl at Jess for spending Kotaro's money when she was being treated to such an indulgent vacation. She tried to put it out of her mind as she unzipped her travel bag and fished for a sketchbook, eager to draw some Polynesian inspired dresses while her memories of the island were still as fresh as the flowers.  
  
Right after she'd gotten comfortable on the bed, as soon as she first touched pencil to paper, an energetic knock shook the door.  
  
 _Knock-ta-TOCK-TOCK-TOCK!_  
  
There was familiarity to the rhythm and Julie let out one of the gentle sighs she kept in reserve for just one person as she set aside her art supplies and went to let him in. To her immense relief, Kotaro was by himself outside her door.  
  
"Smart accommodations, huh?" He scanned her room proudly as she stepped aside to let him in, as if he had built the ship himself. His nose wrinkled when his eyes settled on the dresser. "How come you get flowers in your room? I didn't get flowers."  
  
Julie smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't realize you were such a fan of pretty pink flowers." He pouted childishly and she rolled her eyes. "Here." Reaching the dresser in three small steps, she plucked a joined pair of flowers from the arrangement and tucked them into Kotaro's spiky black mane.  
  
His cheeks tinged a shade closer to that of the flowers. "I look silly, don't I?"  
  
"No, no," she assured him, in a voice that was a bit too giggly to be believable. "You look… cute. Pink is a good color for you."  
  
He beamed his point-after-touchdown grin at her. "You really think so? Maybe I should pick something pink to wear for tomorrow night's show."  
  
"Tomorrow night?" Julie asked.  
  
"Yep. It's our big cruise kick-off concert." He stretched his arms over his head. "People are still getting settled tonight, but they'll be ready for a good show tomorrow. I have to seriously think about pink, though. You're the fashion expert after all. As long as it doesn't clash with my bracelet." He pulled his hand back down so he could admire it.  
  
Warmth kissed Julie's face. "Still wearing it?"  
  
"I wouldn't be able to sing without it."  
  
Even though he had a girlfriend, there was always a little part of his childhood friend with him on stage. It made Julie feel happier than anything else in the last forty-eight hours had. Then she remembered that she had another gift for him.  
  
"I almost forgot," she chimed. She retrieved the metal lunchbox from one of her bags and presented it to him. "I saw this at a secondhand store and it made me think of you."  
  
Kotaro turned it in his hands, fascinated. "This guy holding a sneaker to his ear like a telephone reminded you of me? You must think I'm pretty dumb."  
  
"Not the guy, the words," she groaned.  
  
"Get Smart," he read out loud, and his face lit up. "Smart! That is so… smart! I love it!" With eager fingers he pried open the lunchbox and pulled out the matching thermos. "Is this where the rice goes?"  
  
Old habit got the better of Julie and she pressed her hand over her lips as laughter poured out between them. "It's not a bento, silly. It's American, and from the nineteen-sixties. That's a thermos. It's how a kid would take milk, or juice, or soup with lunch."  
  
"Miso with lunch," Kotaro mused. "Smart! But I think I'm going to use this lunchbox as a treasure chest instead, keep my most important things in it."  
  
"I'm glad you like it." It was such a sweet little moment, watching Kotaro hug her present to his chest, flowers in his hair. Of course something had to cut it short.  
  
 _Tock-Tock_  
  
This knock was so much calmer than the previous one. A cold lump of dread slid down Julie's esophagus. Jessica. "Who is it?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah, who is it?" Kotaro reiterated with just a slight edge of annoyance.  
  
A very familiar, very male voice responded from outside. "It's Akaba. But I can come back later if I'm interrupting something."  
  
Julie let him in right away as Kotaro scowled. "What's happening?" she asked cheerfully.  
  
Akaba didn't answer right away. His eyes found the hibiscus in Kotaro's hair and his lips tightened for a moment then relaxed again before he spoke. "I just got an interesting phone call," he said. "From a man named Lorne Michaels."  
  
"A guy named Lauren?" Kotaro snorted. “I thought that was a girl name.”  
  
Ignoring him, Akaba turned towards Julie and continued. "He produces a popular live comedy show for American television, called Saturday Night Live, and he asked me if Daddy Long Legs would perform Kick Shock on an end-of-summer special."  
  
Kotaro snapped to attention. "We're going to play on American TV?"  
  
"I told him we would," said Akaba. "It's in two weeks, and it's going to be live. Are you going to be okay singing on live national television?"  
  
An insulted grumble slipped out from behind Kotaro's teeth. "What do you mean by that? Haven't I done an awesome job singing in every show on this tour?"  
  
"Yes," Akaba said rationally. "But all of our audiences so far have numbered in hundreds, thousands in Hawaii because of the large Japanese population there, but that's still a far cry from the millions who will be watching you on television."  
  
"Millions?" Kotaro's face blanched; he swallowed once and steeled his expression. "I can handle it. As long as I have Elvis' lucky bracelet… I could sing in front of the whole world!" With that assertion, he had restored his own confidence to full power.  
  
"That's the spirit," Julie said, masking any lingering concern with a big smile. She knew all too well that over confidence had not always been kind to him in the past. "And it's not like you will be able to see the millions. As long as you relax and just treat it like all your other concerts, I know you'll be amazing."  
  
"Amazing?" he uttered hopefully.  
  
In that moment, Julie's eyes and Kotaro's eyes connected, brown and grey, as if an invisible electric current was running between them. Her heart beat faster, the way it always did when she watched the football soar in a graceful arc off his foot and through the uprights.  
  
 _Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock-Knock_  
  
Just like before, the karmic forces of the universe wouldn't let them share a tender moment. This knock was as demanding as one of Kotaro's but with none of his zeal. Before Julie even had time to speculate who it was this time—and the possibilities were dwindling—the guest announced herself in a voice that was just a half-note below shrill.  
  
"Kotaro? Are you inside?"  
  
His response was something between a sigh and a groan, an odd reaction to the arrival of one's beloved. "I'm coming." Shoulders drooping slightly, he walked to the door and opened it.  
  
Dark eyes narrowed on the flowers in Kotaro's hair, darted to the vase full of matching blossoms and then back, making the connection immediately. "Idiot," she sniffed in Japanese.  
  
Kotaro smiled sheepishly and pulled them out.  
  
Jessica changed targets to the lunchbox he was still clutching to his chest. "Come back to our room I'll give you better present," she said seductively, hooking her arms around his elbow. Just before she dragged him out the door, she shot Julie a glare that chilled her to the marrow.  
  
"Uh, see you guys later, I guess," Kotaro mumbled in the last moment before the door closed.  
  
When Julie exhaled it felt like smoke was pouring from her nostrils, but she tried to keep herself composed. "She shouldn't be calling him an idiot." Her restrained fury made the words come out stiff.  
  
"Don't you call him an idiot all the time?" Akaba pointed out.  
  
"But when I say it I mean idiot in a cute way," she said defensively. "And I never glower at him when I say it. And how about that look she gave me before she left? Did you see that? It was like she thought I'd kidnapped him or something."  
  
Akaba stared at her. "Wow, Jewels. I have never seen you like this."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Jealous," he replied, saying the word like it was some rare and baffling disease.  
  
"I'm not jealous," she insisted, desperately wanting to believe it. "I just can't stand that woman. And I don't trust her intentions with Kotaro one bit." Jealous or not, that much was true and it felt good to express it to someone.  
  
"Intentions?" His voice wasn't skeptical but intrigued.  
  
"I think she's suspicious." She'd dropped her voice to nearly a whisper as it seemed appropriate for this conversation. "To me it almost seems…" Shame snagged her voice mid-sentence. She had no proof, just gut instinct that could very well be the byproduct of that despicable emotion called jealousy.  
  
"What is it?" Akaba encouraged.  
  
The utter lack of condemnation in his voice made it much easier for Julie to tell him exactly how she felt. "I have this feeling… that Jessica is just trying to keep Kotaro distracted with, well, her body, so that she can spend his money. Did you know that she uses Kotaro's credit card to buy herself new clothes?"  
  
Akaba blinked his red eyes. "Are you sure?" She nodded and he asked another question. "Does he know?"  
  
Fidgeting in her spot slightly, she answered. "Well, yes…"  
  
"Then there's really nothing we can do," he sighed. "If he chooses to fund her shopping sprees, the consequences are all on him. I will have to have a talk with him about financial responsibility though. Most of the band's money is handled by me, but we can't have him racking up debt."  
  
Julie paused for a moment to think. "There's other stuff about her that doesn't seem quite right. The way she talks is weird. I mean when she tries to use Japanese."  
  
"Her Japanese is awful," said Akaba.  
  
"Yes," she agreed. "But have you noticed that it's always awful in the same way? She always confuses the same particles and uses the same wrong verb forms. Something about it seems almost… deliberate."  
  
"Deliberate?" Akaba raised and eyebrow. "You mean, you think her Japanese is better than she lets on?"  
  
"I… I don't know. Maybe." Julie looked down at her feet. "Maybe my brain is just so desperate to paint her as a villain that it's playing tricks on me. I guess I can't deny that I really am… jealous."  
  
Akaba took a step closer and placed his hand on her shoulder. "It's an undeniable part of being human to feel jealous when the person you are infatuated with is infatuated with someone else. What matters is how we handle it."  
  
"I'm not infatuated with him," she stated, though she could feel a betraying blush start to well beneath the skin of her cheeks. "Kotaro is just special. And I don't think Jessica even realizes it. That woman… She's not good enough for him!" Only when it was all out of her mouth did Julie realize just how loud her voice had gotten.  
  
"Easy, Jewels." Akaba's tone was soothing, but his face looked vaguely amused.  
  
It made Julie pout. She wasn't _trying_ to act like a loon. "The worst part of all this is that I can't even tell him how I feel without making him hate me. There's an ironclad rule that, unless the person has done something illegal or immoral, you aren't supposed to tell your best friend that you hate their lover. And I've got no solid evidence to back me up. I don't want to be some petty, jealous harpy."  
  
"I know you aren't," he told her. "If I wasn't bound by similar social codes, I probably would have lambasted Jess to him right after they hooked up. If her presence made him act like a dick I might have a fair case. But…" A crippling wave of defeat washed through Julie's blood stream, wilting her, and Akaba gave the shoulder he was still touching a few reassuring pats. "I'll see if I can weave some of your concerns into the money talk I'm going to give him."  
  
"You won't tell him I can't stand her, right?"  
  
"Of course not." He took a step back. "For now, how about you and I go for a walk together around the deck and talk about anything besides Kotaro and Jessica?"  
  
He made a good offer, but Julie's heart just wasn't into it. "Thanks, Akaba, but I think I'm going to stay in and draw tonight. I have some dress designs I want to get out of my head and onto paper. Some other time though."  
  
"Okay." His voice was so calm it was impossible to tell if he was disappointed or perhaps relieved that he wouldn't have the task of cheering up a frustrated and lovesick girl.  
  
When the door closed behind his exit, she reclaimed her spot on the bed and covered her ears with headphones to rule out even the smallest possibility of hearing Kotaro and Jessica doing anything in the room next to hers. She put her Daddy Long Legs playlist on repeat and drew all evening until half her sketchbook was full.  
  
On day two of the cruise she did take that walk around the ship, but not with Akaba; rehearsal was keeping the band members tied up for hours on end. She made the circuit on her own, taking the time to savor the smell of salt that the wind whisked up from the ocean. It had made her sad to leave Hawaii after only three days—two of them sober—but this wasn't so bad either. She even got to see dolphins off the starboard side.  
  
That was in the morning. By the afternoon Julie had made a firm resolution to enjoy her setting, even if she didn't enjoy the situation. Clad in her bathing suit, a stylish white one-piece, and her new old tortoiseshell sunglasses, she headed for the pool to enjoy the abundant sunshine.  
  
Since she was 'with the band,' she got to use the private pool, which was calm and clear and free of screaming children. The only guests there were quietly sunbathing adults, but one amongst them stood out. Stretched on a striped deckchair, in a tiny red bikini that could barely contain her, was Jessica Coburn.  
  
Kotaro was not exaggerating when he described her measurements. _Oi! They're melons. Can't let that get to me though. Right now is a perfect chance to practice my acting. Doing it for Kotaro._  
  
Julie put on a genial smile, rehearsing English in her head as she set her towel on the chair right next to Jessica's. "Hey, Jess," she chirped. "Mind if I join you?"  
  
Jessica pulled her undoubtedly expensive shades down her nose a centimeter, just enough to shoot Julie a disinterested look. "Free country," she said simply. As her gaze dropped down from Julie's face to her swimwear, a little smirk came onto her lips. "Old fashioned."  
  
Not about to let a snide comment affect her, Julie smoothed her hands over her hips and smiled confidently. "Timeless," she replied in a single word. Nobody could make her doubt her sense of style. Now it was time to be gracious. "Shall we swim?" she asked, extending her arm like a metaphorical olive branch.  
  
The way Jessica reacted you'd think she'd been invited to roll in manure. "No way! I won't get wet, ruin my hair and bikini." She pointed at her bathing suit and said, in the sort of loud, slow voice one would use with a dog or a preschooler, "Expensive."  
  
Well at least 'old fashioned' swimsuits were allowed to get wet. Right now the clear blue water looked too enticing to pass up for any reason. Turning her back on Jessica and the whole goodwill mission, Julie walked to the edge of the pool and eased in. The water was the perfect temperature; made her wonder why everyone else was staying high and dry instead of enjoying it.  
  
After several minutes of relaxation, a sudden feeling of impending doom seized Julie. She looked all around, but nothing was out of place, the scene was perfectly peaceful. Then she heard it.  
  
"Smart cannonball!"  
  
There was no time for her to react before a human projectile in red shorts launched from the ledge of the pool and hit the water less than a meter away from her with a geyser-like splash. Her hair was soaked and dripping, which wasn't a big deal to her, but she could hear Kotaro laughing uproariously anyways.  
  
"I got you good," he said triumphantly. "You should have seen the look on your face when that spray hit you. Priceless."  
  
Julie rolled her eyes. "You got me wet in a swimming pool. Congratulations." He grinned at her and she shook her head, chuckling softly. "You are such a dork, Kotaro. So I guess you're finished with rehearsal?"  
  
"Yep, just in time to take a dip before the show. It's going to be awesome, by the way." His soggy mane and the buoyant expression he wore reminded Julie of one of those big dogs that retrieves birds from the water. Kotaro must have been a canine in a past life.  
  
"Of course it'll be great," she told him. "So were you planning to swim laps, or just hang out in the water?"  
  
He gave a dismissive sniff. "Swimming laps is not smart. That's what Mizumachi would probably do. No, I just want to enjoy being wet. Hey, I know! Let's play our secret game."  
  
"I can't believe you still remember that," Julie uttered. Their 'secret game' was not called such because they kept it a secret from others. In fact, a lot of kids played their own version of it, the game where you take turns sharing stupid secrets underwater. "We can play it if you want," she said.  
  
"Great! Me first!" He took a deep breath and sank under the surface of the water and Julie followed. His secret came out as a stream of bubbles, the way a fish might talk if only it could, but she understood.  
  
When their heads popped back into the atmosphere, she frowned at him. "You really should buy Akaba a new toothbrush after that."  
  
Kotaro snorted. "The toilet was clean when I knocked it in. Besides, he's been using it for a week now. The damage is already done. Alright, now you have to say a secret."  
  
If she wanted to go with a real secret, there were plenty to choose from: _It turns out I do have feelings for you that go beyond friendship. I think your girlfriend is a stuck up, spoiled brat. I wrote the lyrics to the song that launched your music career._  
  
Of course, it didn't really matter what she said; Kotaro had always been absolutely terrible at this game. Just in case he'd improved in the years since they last played (probably not since middle school), she decided to go with something that wasn't really a secret, but still something she had never outright told him.  
  
They sank into the water in synchrony and she let the words gurgle out. "I think you're the most amazing singer in the entire world!" Through the bubbles she could read confusion on Kotaro's face and it remained there when they surfaced.  
  
"Hey what did you say about my dad?" he stammered. "It better not have been something bad. My old man is totally smart! He…"  
  
Julie cut him off with a playful flick on his nose. "It wasn't about your dad at all, silly. It was about you. I said that you're the most amazing singer in the world. You aren't going to deny it, are you?"  
  
Kotaro's whole face glowed and he rubbed the back of his neck. "You really think so? I mean, yeah, I know I'm pretty good, not as good as I am at kicking… But the best in the world? Really?"  
  
"I think so," she said.  
  
He blinked at her a moment and then a wicked little smile blossomed on his face. "That still doesn't mean you can flick me!" he whooped, slapping a wave of water in her face. From there it took less than three seconds for a full-on water fight to erupt, the two of them laughing from their bellies like children as they chased each other around the pool.  
  
For Julie, it was pure bliss. She was twelve again; just frolicking with her exasperating but lovable best friend and completely ignoring the disdainful looks from the adults whose peace they were upsetting. In the blink of an eye, Kotaro vanished into the water and a half-second later, she felt his arms ensnare her from behind.  
  
"Caught ya!" he whispered in her ear.  
  
A wonderful shudder danced on Julie's spine as she became acutely aware of every centimeter of Kotaro's wet body that was touching hers. Physical contact with him had never had such a powerful affect on her before. It was embarrassing, exhilarating; her heart was pounding.  
  
"Julie," he said softly when she had been silent for too long.  
  
"Yeah?" she breathed back, terrified to turn around and face him.  
  
"I…"  
  
"Kouta-chaaaaaan!"  
  
Jessica's cloying wail shattered the mood the way a high pitched note does to a crystal wine glass. Kotaro's arms instantly released and Julie scrambled out guiltily.  
  
"Oh, hey Jess," he said. "I didn't even know you were here at the pool." She tilted her head and he spoke again in loud English. "I not knowing you were at pool."  
  
She responded with a chortle of bad Japanese. "Kouta is so stupid. You not need to play with neighbor girl now. Jessica is here."  
  
"Yeah, I guess not," he said.  
  
Now it may have just been the delusions of wishful ears, but Julie couldn't help thinking that he didn't sound particularly excited at his girlfriend's arrival. She had sworn not to interfere with the relationship as long as Kotaro was happy. But if he wasn't happy she might have to rethink that oath.  
  
No matter how he felt about the girl, Jessica was now on him like a barnacle and Julie had a powerful urge to get far, far away. "I think I'm going to go back to my room," she announced. "I've got water in my ears and I think I can see some pink on my shoulders." Both lies.  
  
"Oh, okay," Kotaro said. "You're coming to the show tonight, though, right."  
  
She assured him with a smile. "I wouldn't miss it for the world.  
  
As she toweled off at her chair, Julie tried not to look towards the pool, wholly uninterested in whatever those two might be doing. In their aversion, her eyes found Jessica's pool bag, another cool-for-ten-minutes accessory, and out of curiosity, she peered inside. There was a bottle of pricy tanning oil, her sunglasses, an American celebrity gossip magazine, and one thing that definitely didn't fit in. It was a book. In Japanese.  
  
Julie's gaze darted to the scene she'd been avoiding. Kotaro and Jess were occupied (she didn't care to dwell on the details), so she surreptitiously pulled out the book, a paperback aimed at young women, definitely not something Kotaro would ever read. She opened it up. The text didn't have a pronunciation key. This book was for fluent speakers.  
  
Her pulse quickened. This was a major find. The discovery of the book didn't prove anything definitively; there was always the chance of a bizarre explanation. But it could certainly be considered evidence, strong evidence even, that the bad vibes Julie was getting about Jessica weren't all in her head.  
  
She returned it to the bag exactly as she found it and raced back to her room.  
  
 _What do I do from here? Should I confront her and ask about it? Tell Kotaro?_  
  
This was such an unusual situation that there was no prescribed way of handling it, but at least Julie had an intelligent confidant to consult with. She went straight past her own door and rapped her knuckles on Akaba's.  
  
Nobody answered.  
  
She continued knocking intermittently for a full two minutes with no sign of life from inside. Dammit! He must still be rehearsing.  
  
Through her nose she dragged oxygen into her lungs, rationality into her brain. Yes, this was important, but it wasn't an emergency. Whatever Jessica's intentions were in hiding her knowledge of Japanese—assuming, of course, that there wasn't some other wild reason for her to have that book—she hadn't brought about any physical harm to anyone. Nobody would be in imminent danger if things just stayed as they were while Julie tried to figure this all out.  
  
She opened the door to her own room, still breathing in and out slowly from her nostrils. Even though she'd calmed herself significantly, the urge to take some kind of action still crackled like live wire strung through her limbs.  
  
Before even changing out of her bathing suit, she picked up her cell phone and speed dialed Akaba. Ten rings and then it went to voicemail, but before the beep at the end of his recorded message, Akaba picked up.  
  
"Sorry about that. It's a little bit loud here. So what's up Jewels?"  
  
Behind his voice, a bass guitar twanged. "Hey Akaba, I won't keep you from your practice too long, but…" She wasn't sure how much to tell him on the phone. "When you have time I need to talk to you. In person." That would be the best way.  
  
"You sound a little tweaked," he said. "Are you sure you're okay? If this is an emergency I'll be right there."  
  
"It's not an emergency," she replied in a quick, high voice. "It's important, but not an emergency. Your music should come first."  
  
There was a drawn out silence on Akaba's side of the phone, the sound of him deliberating. "Okay," he finally said, serene as a monk. "The show starts in three hours. Meet me backstage in two. You know where that is, right?"  
  
The rest of the conversation was him giving her directions and asking one last time if she was really going to be okay waiting to say whatever it is she had to say. "Are you sure you don't want to just tell me over the phone?"  
  
"I'm sure," she answered, nodding even though he couldn't see her. "It has to be absolutely private."  
  
"Alright, well, I'll see you in two hours then. Goodbye."  
  
"Yeah, bye. Oh, and, uh… just keep an eye out for Jessica. In case she does anything… strange…"  
  
Two hours was a bearable wait, especially after she subtracted the portion she would spend showering and getting ready for the concert. Two hours was more than enough time for her imagination to fertilize the little seed of evidence she'd found and grow all kinds of wild theories. By the time she was leaving her room, government conspiracy did not seem impossible.  
  
And she used to be such a sensible person. At least Akaba would talk some sanity into her.  
  
A heavily muscled guard was standing outside the door she needed to pass through. "Name?" he grunted in a voice that matched his build.  
  
"Sawai," she squeaked, hoping that he'd been told about her visit. "Julie Sawai? I'm here to see…"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know," he grumbled, opening the door for her. "Go on, get inside."  
  
The moment she stepped inside she heard her name shouted. "Julie! Smart timing!"  
  
"Kotaro," she uttered, surprised to see him backstage so early. "I, uh, I'm actually here to see Akaba. He and I…"  
  
His hands fisted in his hair. "Gah! Stupid Akaba can wait. This is an emergency!" The look on his face matched his claim, shear panic.  
  
"What's wrong?" Julie asked urgently.  
  
"My lucky bracelet! Elvis' bracelet! I forgot to put it on after coming back from the pool!" He disheveled his hair frantically with both hands, definitely an indication that things were not right. "Not smart! So not smart!"  
  
If it were anyone else, Julie might have suggested that his girlfriend should be the one to fetch it for him. But she was the one who'd convinced him that the bracelet was his key to confidence. She was the one who had gotten him dependent on some useless object. And she would get him through the crisis of losing it.  
  
"Alright, where is it?" she asked.  
  
"It's in the thermos in my treasure chest in my suitcase in the closet in my room," he answered very quickly. Then he pulled something from his pocket. "Here's the room key."  
  
She nodded determinedly. "If you see Akaba just tell him I'm going to be a few minutes late."  
  
"Can do," he said. "Oh, and Julie? Thanks." He leaned over and pressed a small kiss to her forehead that almost made her forget her mission.  
  
She touched the spot with her fingertips, blinked several times, and came to her senses, flying out the door on winged feet. The stage was near the front end of the ship. Their rooms were at the very tail. Swiftness was required if she was going to make it back in time to talk to Akaba.  
  
It didn't help her quest that almost everyone aboard the cruise ship was heading towards the stage to get a good seat for the show. Julie did her best to weave between them without any collisions, and thankfully the traffic eased the further she got from the front of the ship.  
  
Her hands were inept getting the key into the lock; it took about twice as long as it should have. She was trying to hustle, yes, but her body was operating like she had ten minutes to diffuse a bomb, not one hour to retrieve a bracelet.  
  
 _Stupid Kotaro_ , she thought as she finally got the door opened. _Why'd he have to have that panicked look on his face? It infected me. That guy is going to give me a nervous breakdown one day, I swear. The things he puts me through…_  
  
An unmade queen-size bed filled up most of the room and a viciously tight knot tied itself in Julie's stomach when she realized the sheets were a mess from Kotaro and that woman sleeping there. It took considerable effort not to think about it.  
  
"Alright, in the thermos in the treasure chest in the suitcase in the closet." She repeated his directions out loud as she followed them. She found the closet, found his suitcase, unzipped it.  
  
And found nothing.  
  
"It's not in here!" she hissed through her teeth. "But this is his suitcase, his clothes are in it."  
  
Maybe he'd stashed it in the wrong one. Dare she look in Jessica's suitcase? It did bear enough resemblance to Kotaro's to warrant a search. But was the bracelet really that important? The scene from over a year ago, Kotaro dropkicking the karaoke microphone at Blue Monday, replayed in Julie's head. She had no other choice.  
  
Jess' bag was absolutely stuffed with women’s clothes, making it hard to believe that Kotaro could make such a mistake. Julie dug in anyway. Her best friend's music career was at stake. She felt something solid beneath a folded pair of jeans and flung them out of the way.  
  
"CDs?" Her forehead creased as she examined the find that was definitely not what she was looking for. She would have put them right back and continued her hunt elsewhere, but there was something decidedly strange about these CDs that kept her staring at them.  
  
Like the book from earlier, the CDs were in Japanese. This couldn't be considered evidence in the same way, though. Knowledge of the language was not prerequisite for enjoying the music; this whole American adventure was proof of that. It was the photo of the singer on the cover that piqued Julie's interest, a sweet-faced young girl dressed in punkish Lolita style clothing. Copious layers of makeup had been painted around her eyes, but she seemed vaguely familiar.  
  
Julie read the artist's name out loud. "Kobane Shika." It sounded kind of familiar too. Her eyes focused in closely on the girl's face as she said the name again, with slightly different inflection. "Koban Eshika. Coburn, Jessica."  
  
Suddenly the name matched the face. Ice flowed through Julie's arteries. "Jessica is… a Japanese singer?"  
  
"Half Japanese, actually."  
  
Julie spun. Jessica was standing near the doorway with a smug grin. She was speaking in fluent Japanese and in one of her hands was the _Get Smart_ lunchbox, Kotaro's treasure chest.  
  
The sound Julie made was like a growl of anger and a gasp of shock at once. "You… You've been lying to everyone this whole time!"  
  
Jessica clucked her tongue. "So I'm a liar. And you are a nosy, interfering little bitch." Her voice transformed into a snarl as she spoke. "I knew you would be a big pain in my ass as soon I lay eyes on you, but I didn't think you'd get around to spying on me so soon. I thought it would take at least a week."  
  
"I didn't come here to spy," Julie spat. "I came here for…"  
  
"This?" Jessica swung the lunchbox in front of her. "Ah yes, yet another gift you gave to your dear childhood friend. But I assume it's the worthless bracelet inside that you are really after. Am I right?"  
  
"Kotaro needs it to sing. Now give it to me, Shika!" Julie's vision tinged red. She pounced at Jessica, but the girl deftly stepped out of the way and shook with witchy laughter when Julie crashed into the door.  
  
"Aren't you at all curious about my motives?" she asked.  
  
Julie was rubbing her forehead where it made contact with the door. "You're going to tell me everything when I expose all your lies to Kotaro," she growled. "Right now I just need that bracelet." She made another lunge, but Jessica dodged again.  
  
Now it had become a chase. Jess was remarkably agile. When Julie thought she had her cornered, she vaulted over the bed and made a dash for the door. "I'll never let you have it!" she cackled.  
  
Julie's heart galloped as she ran as fast as she could after Jessica, into the hallway and out onto the deserted deck. The chase took her to the very back of the ship, where Jessica was leaning over the railing and dangling the lunchbox precariously over the ocean, which was dyed orange by the setting sun.  
  
"I have absolutely no reason not to drop this into the Pacific and be done with it," she said. "It would probably be good for that big idiot to be rid of this. After all, you did break his heart before he came to America. Funny isn't it, Julie? How you set Kotaro up for me. You made him such an easy target."  
  
"You're disgusting!" Julie roared. At the same time she dove the last meter forward, and this time was successful, both hands gripping onto the metal box before Jessica had a chance to drop it. But if it wasn't going into the water, Jess was not letting go.  
  
The two girls wrestled, neither giving up one finger of her hold on the lunchbox. The pulling on both sides and the shuffling of feet moved the struggle away from the railing, which at least relieved Julie of her fear that the box would go overboard.  
  
"Just give it up, Shika!" she growled. "You're busted either way. And everything that's happening now is being caught on a security camera."  
  
"I will not give in to an ugly girl like you!" Jessica's teeth were bared like a feral animal's. "That guy really is a moron, getting all mushy over you when he has me. The only thing uglier than your face is your hideous wardrobe."  
  
"You wouldn't know fashion if it bit you on the ass! And Kotaro is NOT a moron!"  
  
"Julie! Jess! What the hell is going on?"  
  
The sound of Kotaro's voice made Jessica relinquish her claim on the lunch box and Julie, still pulling with all her might, stumbled backwards. "Kotaro," she panted. "Thank goodness you're…"  
  
"Oh Kouta! It's so awful!" Jess had already flung herself at him and was squealing in her very fake bad Japanese. "Julie try to attack me. She jealous of you love me."  
  
Kotaro shoved her away and Julie felt a burst of triumph in her chest. "Julie would never attack someone for something stupid like that. You're lying to me."  
  
"Yes!" Julie stammered. "I never attacked her. She was trying to throw your treasure chest overboard. And! She speaks perfect Japanese!"  
  
"What?" Kotaro's face stretched wide with shock. He grabbed Jessica by the arms and glared at her. "Is this true? _Is it_?"  
  
Jessica just stared for a moment and then she broke down blubbering in the most overly dramatic manner, clinging to the front of Kotaro's shirt. "It's true. It's true. But… I just wanted you to feel like you had won over a real American hottie after that Japanese bitch rejected you." She twisted her neck to shoot a snarl at Julie. "And I only was going to throw out that box because it was from her and I wanted you to be able to move on. I swear that's the truth! I love you!"  
  
"Get the hell away from him."  
  
Every eye turned to the voice of a new arrival.  
  
"Akaba!" Julie gasped. "You're here too?"  
  
"When you didn't come back right away, Kotaro got worried and went looking for you. Then I had to go look for him. Julie, when you told me your suspicions about Jessica I started doing some research in my spare time." He turned to Kotaro. "Your girlfriend isn't who she says she is. She was a failed idol singer in Japan."  
  
Julie was at Akaba's side in an instant to back him up. "That's right! Her real name is Kobane Shika. She's just been using you for your money and fame so she can try to re-launch her career." Apparently Julie didn't need to have the motive explained to her. It all just came together through her intuition.  
  
The wounded look on Kotaro's face was excruciating. "You mean… You never even liked me?" There was a squeak in his voice. His focus shifted to Julie and Akaba. "And you guys? How long have you known?"  
  
"We just found out," Akaba assured him. "But Jewels was suspicious from the get-go. Her gut feeling is the reason I looked into it. She was really worried about you."  
  
"Really?" Kotaro's face softened, grey eyes sparkled. "Thanks."  
  
"I hate to have to cut things short," Akaba interrupted. "I know we all have a lot of questions that need answers, but right now there's a concert about to start with just a bassist and a drummer."  
  
"Crap! That's right!" Kotaro shouted. "But what are we going to do with Miss Pants-On-Fire here?" His fingers were still wrapped tight around Jessica's arms and he shook her slightly to emphasize the question.  
  
Akaba scratched his chin, one of his almost imperceptible smiles barely showing on his lips. "I think we have time to stop by the ship's police station on our way. They'll keep an eye on this one until we come back to interrogate her."  
  
Jessica snorted arrogantly. "On what charges could they hold me? Carrying a concealed language?"  
  
"Stealing," Julie answered, hugging Kotaro's lunchbox protectively to her chest.  
  
There was a moment of pure silence that slowly gave way to a growing sound deep inside Jessica's chest, the growl of a beast about to attack. But Julie recognized it too late. Jessica had thrashed out of Kotaro's grasp and was hurtling at her like a bullet.  
  
How was this woman so damn fast?  
  
Julie felt two things instantaneously, Akaba's arms roping around her and Kotaro's lunchbox being wrenched from her arms. It sailed in a high curve from where Jessica threw it towards the back of the ship. Kotaro sprinted after it, arms extended.  
  
"Not smart! I'm a kicker not a receiver!"  
  
The moment he jumped up onto the second bar of the guardrail, Julie felt her heart stop. In an escape maneuver similar to Jessica's, but less violent, she struggled free from Akaba's hold and ran to Kotaro as quickly as her legs would take her. "Kotaro! Get Back!" She hooked her arms around his midsection just as he was leaning out to catch his treasure chest.  
  
He caught it with a proud exclamation. "Smart catch!"  
  
Then his body pitched forward, tottered. Julie felt him slipping through her arms and squeezed tighter. She stepped up onto the guardrail, determined not to let go of him no matter what. Suddenly her shoes lost their grip, they were both upside down, and the orange ocean was racing up towards them.


	8. Chapter 8

 

 

Track 8: Refugee

* * *

  
  
Julie barely had time to fill up her lungs with oxygen before the surface of the ocean knocked it back out. She'd never been slapped across the face before, but the impact was exactly how she imagined it would feel to be slapped across her whole body, with a wet palm the size of a kitchen table.  
  
The speed at which they hit plunged her and Kotaro deep into the ocean. There was no way she could have kept her hold on him; her arms were needed to desperately flail to the surface and get air. If she could find what direction the surface was. Brine stung her eyes and blurred her vision, but there was an orange glow and she kicked her legs to propel herself towards it.  
  
The first thing she heard when her ears were above water was her name being shouted by Kotaro's voice.  
  
"Julie! Julie, are you hurt?" He kicked over to her and reached out a hand. "Grab onto me so we don't get separated."  
  
Still panting as her lungs burned with salt Julie couldn't speak much of a response but she laced her fingers into his. "That. Was. Scary."  
  
"I'll say," he grumbled. His other hand was struggling to keep his metal lunchbox above the water, which made it difficult for him to stay afloat, but he acted more annoyed than worried. "When we get back on dry land I am so suing whoever made that guardrail. Not smart!"  
  
"How're we going to get to dry land?" Julie squeaked. They were treading water, heads barely bobbing at the surface, and Kotaro didn't seem to be taking the situation seriously enough.  
  
"Jewels! Kotaro!"  
  
Akaba's shouts drew her eyes upwards to where his head was just a lofty red smudge. The distance between the deck and the water seemed a lot greater from below. "We're okay!" she yelled up.  
  
"Hang tight! I'm coming!" Akaba replied.  
  
Julie and Kotaro immediately turned to look at each other. "Did he just say he's coming?" he asked. "Down here?"  
  
"He means he'll get help to us down here," she assured him. "Akaba wouldn't be so…"  
  
Before she could say the word 'rash,' Akaba descended like a red meteor and splashed down a few meters away. His head breached the surface a second later and Julie just stared at him in shock. That was the most un-Akaba-ish thing she'd ever seen Akaba do.  
  
Kotaro was able to express his feelings better out loud. "You idiot! Now all three of us are in the ocean! Who's going to rescue us now?"  
  
"Everyone is at the other end of the boat waiting for the concert to start." Julie's voice was concerned but calm. She still held onto the hope that this was all just a part of Akaba's master plan. There was a rectangular object the size of a suitcase floating under his arm that had to have a role in their rescue. "What is that?"  
  
"Ah, the raft," he said, as if he had forgotten that he had it. "I brought a life raft." His hands groped the sides of the suitcase until he found the cord and gave it a sharp tug. With a long, powerful whoosh it ballooned into something resembling a child's wading pool with a pup tent stuck on top. "Everybody get in."  
  
Julie and Akaba and Kotaro swam to the raft and scrambled inside through the triangular door hole in the tent. Soaked and salty, but alive and unhurt, they exchanged sighs of relief.  
  
"Thanks," Julie panted. Keeping her head out of the water had taken a surprising amount of energy. " Okay, Akaba, what's the plan?"  
  
"Plan?" Akaba's face was smooth and blank as a sheet of paper, his eyes wide and blinking. It was an unnatural expression on him.  
  
There was a plummeting feeling in Julie's chest, like she was falling all over again. "You mean, you don't have a plan?" she asked anxiously.  
  
"Ha ha! I knew it!" Kotaro trumpeted. "I knew he didn't have a plan! Mr. Guitar McBrilliant is no smarter than I am! You should change your name to Bakaba!" Julie shot him a disapproving glare and he pouted. "What? You don't get it? Bakaba, because he's an idiot? Instead of Akaba?"  
  
Her frown tightened. "I get it. I just don't think it's a very nice thing to say about the guy who got us this raft. He saved our asses."  
  
Kotaro snorted loudly. " _Saved_ our asses? If he wasn't such an idiot he would have just thrown it down to us and stayed on the boat so he could get us help. The only other person who knows we fell is Jessica and I don't think she's going to rescue us. Bakaba _doomed_ our asses!"  
  
Julie rolled her eyes. "You do realize that if you hadn't leaned off the guardrail to catch that lunchbox we wouldn't need to be rescued, right?"  
  
"Well, you didn't have to grab onto me and fall overboard too." He hugged the box to his chest and looked down at it. "Sorry, I just couldn't bear to lose something so precious to me."  
  
"Neither could I! Why do you think I grabbed onto…" Julie stopped her words. She'd already said too much and her face was blushing a furious shade of pink. "Look," she said more calmly. "It won't do us any good to argue over who the biggest idiot is. We're all in the same boat together now."  
  
"In a manner of speaking," Kotaro said. Then his eyebrows creased angrily. "Of course we all know whose fault this really is. That wicked witch, Jessica. I can't believe she played me for a sap like that. I just…" He growled and smashed his fist against the side of the raft causing it to wobble slightly.  
  
Julie was watching his face closely. There was a tiny twitch in his lower eyelids that reminded her of how dejected he'd looked when the truth was first revealed to him. The fact that they were now in peril on the Pacific didn't erase the fact that he had just been dealt a pretty harsh emotional thrashing. It was just one terrible thing piled on top of another and she wasn't really sure what the right thing to say was.  
  
"I'm sorry you guys."  
  
Both of them turned immediately to Akaba, slouched miserably in the opposite corner. His face was still vacant, but the drooping posture of his body and ghostly tone of his voice gave him an undeniable air of desolation. It was a frighteningly unfamiliar state to see him in.  
  
"Oh come off it," Kotaro grunted, but Julie could read on his face that he was as disturbed as her at seeing Akaba like this.  
  
She scooted herself over to Akaba's side and placed her hand on his shoulder, ignoring the annoyed little grumble it drew from Kotaro. "Akaba, we aren't disappointed in you. Everything happened very quickly. Emotions were high. I don't think either one of us would have done any better in your position."  
  
"I'm supposed to be the smart one, the calm and rational one." He kept his eyes staring on the raft floor as he spoke.  
  
"Is this because I called you Bakaba?" Kotaro asked. "Because you know I was just being a jerk, right? I didn't mean to, uh… you know, hurt your feelings. So I guess I'm sorry…" He handled the apology like it was an oversized, lopsided object that was a bit too heavy to lift. But the fact that he was giving one to Akaba at all was quite shocking.  
  
"Your bull-headedness doesn't get to me anymore," Akaba replied. He looked up at Kotaro and then at Julie. "When I saw you two fall my brain that I've always relied on stopped working properly; I am amazed it even thought to grab this raft. That's never happened before."  
  
This kind of confession from Akaba was as unexpected as Kotaro's apology. Julie did her best to reassure him. "I think making it to nineteen before ever having a panic attack is pretty impressive."  
  
His face was starting to show more of its familiar composure. "You don't have any more of Elvis' jewelry lying around, do you?" Julie smiled at the comment; Kotaro growled and tightened his grip on the lunchbox. "I suppose dwelling on it won't help our situation. We have to make a plan to rescue ourselves as quickly as possible."  
  
"Won't the people on the boat realize that we're missing and send a search party?" Julie asked. "Your concert is supposed to start in just a few minutes and the absence of the guitarist and lead singer is not going to go unnoticed."  
  
"Yes, but who knows how far we'll have drifted by then," Akaba said. "Take a look outside."  
  
Julie crawled across the wobbly raft bed and poked her head out of the hole. The sun was almost touching the western horizon, its red-orange glow reflecting doubly bright off the water and piercing her eyes. But when she squinted she was able to see the back end of their cruise ship over two football fields away.  
  
"Holy crow!" she gasped, pulling her head back in and returning to her spot between the boys. "That ship's moving fast."  
  
"Exactly. We can't count on them coming to find us anytime soon and it's going to get dark out here fast." Akaba's tone was serious and had regained that familiar undercurrent of cool rationality. "We should take turns being on lookout for any signs of land or other boats. They'll be even harder to spot when the sun goes down."  
  
While she appreciated Akaba's leadership skills, Julie was finding that his unfaltering honesty didn't inspire much hope. "Is it really as bleak as it sounds?" she asked in a grave voice.  
  
"It could be a lot worse," said Akaba, probably the only comfort he could think of. "At least your seasickness isn't acting up."  
  
Her face puckered curiously. "Seasickness? I only get sick on planes, something about the change in air pressure… I'm just fine on boats and rafts."  
  
"Really?" Akaba raised one eyebrow just a few millimeters. "I could have sworn you'd told me once that you get terribly seasick. It's a relief that you don't. I must be thinking of somebody…"  
  
 _Blaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgh_  
  
A loud and disgusting retch obliterated the end of his sentence and the reason why Kotaro had been so uncharacteristically quiet for so long became clear.  
  
He was clinging to the walls of the raft with his head and arms hanging out the door hole, his lunchbox abandoned at his side. Between the sounds of his stomach emptying into the ocean he groaned miserably.  
  
Julie was at his side in a heartbeat. "Oh my god, Kotaro," she said in alarm. "That's right, you're the one who gets seasick." Her hand rubbed soothing circles on his back. "Does it usually pass after a while?"  
  
"Yeah," Kotaro wheezed. "It'll stop once my stomach is empty." But apparently it still had plenty of fuel, as he heaved yet again as soon as he said it.  
  
Despite wincing at the hideous sounds he was producing, Julie stayed right there next to him and continued stroking his back through his wet shirt. He had done the same for her when she was inebriated. "Everything is going to be alright," she said softly, her eyes darting over to Akaba in the hope that his calmly determined face would help her believe her own words.  
  
The face staring back at her was white as lily petals; she could tell, even in the shadowy space of the raft, by how it contrasted his dark hair. His eyes were opened so wide the full circle of red iris was visible. Another expression she had never seen was being displayed on Akaba's face, but this one was far more disturbing than shock or confusion. Akaba was terrified.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice shaking from the fear he'd infected her with. "Akaba talk to me. Kotaro is going to be okay, right? It's just seasickness."  
  
Right on cue, the man in question released another stream of vomit into the Pacific.  
  
"We don't have any water," Akaba said, eyes full of dread and focused solely on Kotaro. "If he doesn't stop throwing up and replenish his fluids fast, he's going to get dehydrated."  
  
It was a threat that Julie hadn't even thought about. Her blood ran ice cold. "This is really serious, isn't it? Wasn't this raft packed with emergency supplies?" She scanned all around and Akaba did the same, feeling around with his hands. Julie refused to take hers off of Kotaro.  
  
Eventually, his groping found a zippered pocket in the wall. From it he pulled out a pair of oars, a watertight flashlight, batteries, a patching kit for the raft, matches, and flares. No water. But miraculously there was a small first aid kit, and inside it there were seasickness patches.  
  
"How do you suppose we missed all that?" Julie puzzled out loud. "It's too late to be preventative, but hopefully it can still be curative." She opened up one of the patches, brushed Kotaro's black mane out of the way, and stuck it firmly behind his ear. "I hope this makes you feel better."  
  
"So do I," he muttered weakly. "But… having you touching me helps too."  
  
Julie sighed. "After everything that's happened in the last hour, you still say such silly things."  
  
"Even if the patch does work, he's already lost a lot of fluid," Akaba said, still visibly tense. "We need to get rescued as quickly as possible." He paused, rubbing his chin as he evaluated the supplies he'd laid out in the dim raft.  
  
"What are you thinking about?" Julie asked.  
  
"Trying to decide if it's worth it to light a flare when there aren't any other boats visible to us," he answered.  
  
That was a decision Julie would need to think on, so she responded with a noncommittal, "I see."  
  
They sat in silent contemplation for several minutes before Kotaro—who hadn't puked again the entire time—was the first one to talk. "Why are you guys driving yourself nuts over this?" he asked petulantly. "Can't we just wait on that island over there? That seems like the smart thing to do."  
  
"Island?" The word fell from two sets of lips at the same time. Wasting less than a second to blink at Akaba in dumb surprise, Julie hastily thrust her head out the door hole. She had to squint her eyes down to slivers to make out the tiny irregularity on the red horizon, but it definitely was there.  
  
Akaba's head joined the other two. "Fuu~ You must have very good vision, Kotaro."  
  
"Of course I do," he snorted. "So is that where we're heading?"  
  
"It's our best bet," Akaba replied. "Your nausea seems to have subsided. Will you be okay laying down inside while Jewels and I paddle?"  
  
Predictably, this was not what Kotaro wanted to hear and he whined loudly. "Why can't I paddle? Julie is the one who should get to relax. What kind of man are you, Bakaba, making this lovely woman toil while a fellow like me gets to rest? It's not smart and I won't allow it."  
  
His griping earned him a swift whack on his backside with an oar wielded by Julie. "Okay Mr. Chivalry, if you can wrest this oar from my hands, I'll let you paddle in my place."  
  
An eager smile spread on Kotaro's dry lips at the challenge. "You're on," he said and lunged for the oar. But his movements were weak and clumsy. He sat up quickly and almost immediately collapsed backwards, one hand on his forehead. "Whoa, head rush." His other hand grabbed the oar but there wasn't even enough strength left in him to tug it from Julie's loose grip.  
  
"I win," she said with a victorious little smirk. "Now lay down and don't you dare exert yourself."  
  
Wearing his most childlike pout, he complied and curled up in the back of the raft. Julie knew that he must really be feeling worse than he let on, or else he wouldn't have given up so easily. Nothing was going to prevent her from paddling with all her strength.  
  
Akaba took up the other oar and together they churned a steady path towards the distant speck of land. As they drew closer, the sun became a shrinking shard of red and the world around them grew darker.  
  
"Don't exhaust yourself," Akaba said. "You've been paddling like a machine the whole time."  
  
"So have you," she panted back. "I won't let up until I know Kotaro is going to be alright."  
  
In response, Akaba just nodded and fixed his eyes more tightly on the shadowed mass that was finally starting to draw nearer and have distinctly terrestrial features like cliffs and trees. They were both fighting for the same cause.  
  
From behind them came a soft groan, which was actually a relief as Kotaro had so far been frighteningly quiet. "I don't feel so good," he muttered in a voice that sounded too puny to belong to him. Then came a noise that could only be produced by him throwing up yet again. "I barfed in the raft, guys. Sorry. It wasn’t very much, at least."  
  
Julie paddled even harder, until the muscles of her arms were on fire, and didn't slow down even once. Thanks to the blessing of a nearly full moon in a cloudless sky, they never lost sight of the little island and eventually made it to the pebbled shore. Both she and Akaba got out and dragged the raft, with Kotaro inside, up onto dry earth.  
  
"Let's get him out into the fresh air," Julie said, ignoring the fact that her heart was booming and her arms were knotted with pain. The two of them maneuvered Kotaro out through the door hole and lay him on a patch of grass, and Julie fell to her knees next to him.  
  
His eyes opened halfway and he made his best attempt to smile. "We would have gotten here quicker if I had been paddling," he quietly croaked.  
  
Julie sniffed at the prickle of encroaching tears then threw her arms over his chest and buried her face against his shoulder. She didn't even care that he smelled like stale vomit, because he was alive. "Stupid Kotaro," she cried. "You big, stupid… Don't you ever make me worry like that again!"  
  
"He's not out of the woods yet." Akaba was crouched on Kotaro's other side, shining the waterproof flashlight down on him. "He needs clean, fresh water, and so do you and I, though our need isn't as dire." He paused a moment. "I'm going to go look for a source of fresh water. You stay here with Kotaro."  
  
"You're going to go… now?" Julie's eyes drifted to the dark fringe of trees where beach became forest further inland. "What if you get lost? We have no idea how big this island is. And you'll be all alone."  
  
"Without water, he'll be in seriously bad shape by morning," he answered. "I used to hike a lot with my dad. I'll take the flashlight and batteries with me and I'll be okay. You have to trust me, Jewels." He leaned over Kotaro's body and put both his hands on Julie's shoulders. "I'm going to take care of you and Kotaro. I'm going to make up for jumping off that ship."  
  
"But Akaba, nobody blames…." Julie began.  
  
"Just trust me," he interrupted, red eyes blazing in the flashlight’s glow. "You'll take good care of him, I know it." His gaze dropped to Kotaro's face and Julie saw the fire leave his eyes. In its place was a tenderness she'd never seen before; it could only be described as love. He brushed Kotaro's hair back off his forehead and whispered, "You hang in there, okay?"  
  
Kotaro didn't have the energy to make snide retort, just nodded. Then Akaba stood up and walked silently towards the woods. It didn't take long for him and his flashlight to be swallowed by trees and shadow.  
  
"I'm going to make us a fire," Julie said. "But I won't stray far from you. Akaba is going to bring plenty of water. He's going to be just fine." Of course, Kotaro hadn't voiced any concern for Akaba—from lack of worry or lack of strength, she didn't know. Julie was mostly trying to reassure herself.  
  
"How's he going to carry it?" Kotaro asked scratchily.  
  
"We don't have to worry about that. He'll find a way." Great, now she had another worry stuffed into her overcrowded brain. But Kotaro was the only one that she was going to deal with, her number one priority.  
  
There was plenty of dried out driftwood and beach grass, so with the matches from the raft kit it was easy for Julie to get a good campfire going. The driftwood snapped and crackled and salt-fed flames licked with a greenish hue. She took a seat protectively close to Kotaro and let the fire warm her while her eyes stayed on the gentle rise and fall of his chest, primed for any change in his condition.  
  
"Hey Julie?" he asked.  
  
"What is it?" She shifted focus to his face, watching his tongue flick over parched lips to little effect.  
  
"Could you bring me my treasure chest?" It was such a simple request, but his dry voice made it sound grave.  
  
"Of course," she answered. When she emerged from the raft tent with his Get Smart lunch box, Kotaro had propped himself up on his elbows. "You should lay back down," she chastised.  
  
"I'm really not as sick as you and Guitar Boy think I am," he huffed, easing himself slowly up into a sitting position and holding out his hands for the box.  
  
Julie placed it in them with a soft sigh and sat down next to him. "So besides Elvis' bracelet, what all do you keep in there?"  
  
"Just my irreplaceables." He opened the lunchbox and looked at its contents with such visible glee, even in his pitiful condition, that you'd think it held a real treasure. "Here's the football tee you gave me for my fourteenth birthday. And here's the card you drew to go with it, and the program from Peter Pan in third grade. There's a picture of our ballet class in here too." As he named each item, he lifted it from the box with unsteady hands and set it gingerly on the ground.  
  
"Hey wait a minute," Julie interrupted. "This is all stuff I gave you. You brought all this stuff to America with you?"  
  
"Of course. They're my treasures." Like so much of his strange behavior, he didn't seem to think it was in any way strange. "And here's the bottle of water you gave me on the first day of football practice at Bando."  
  
"What?" Her interjection was so loud that Akaba probably heard it out in the forest. Lips stretched around an incredulous gape when Kotaro produced from his lunchbox, not an empty bottle, but a full bottle of volcanic spring water, still factory sealed. "You… You had this with you all along? You're laying here, weak as a dried up seahorse, while Akaba wanders around a strange island at night and you had water with you all along?"  
  
"I guess I forgot about it," he said, unfazed by her outrage. "I don't think of it as something for drinking."  
  
"Well you're going to drink it now," she barked, snatching up the bottle and twisting off the cap before he could object. After a deep and calming breath, she spoke again in a gentler tone. "Okay, lean back and put your head in my lap."  
  
His dull eyes opened a little wider. "R-really?" She nodded and he leaned back just as directed. "Man, the only thing that could make this better is if you were dressed as a nurse."  
  
Julie's eyes rolled back. "Alright," she muttered. "Time to open your mouth without talking."  
  
She tipped the water into his mouth in small, frequent doses, making sure he swallowed before giving him more. By the time the bottle was drained, he was already looking healthier. "That put a little bit of color back in your cheeks," she said happily. "We still need Akaba's mission to be successful, but at least your situation is a bit less grim."  
  
"I feel a lot better," he said, with more energy than he'd had since his seasickness first set in. "But that might be more because I have my head in your lap than because of the water. So how are we going to pass the time till he gets back? What do you want to talk about?"  
  
"Anything other than the fact that we're stranded on some unknown island in the Pacific after falling off a cruise ship," she sighed.  
  
"But they're going to find us soon," Kotaro assured her. "They're already looking for us, I'm sure of it. Hell, they'll probably get here before Akaba comes back and then they'll be pissed that they have to go into that spooky forest and find him. Man, I can't wait to see the relief on Sakai and what's-his-name's faces when we board that ship safe and sound. And I have more than a few words I wanna say to that Jessica…"  
  
Kotaro was the worst off of the three of them and still was taking their ordeal the least seriously. How he could stay optimistic to the point of cockiness was remarkable but it as consistent with his usual attitude. Julie wished it was contagious.  
  
But right now she was too tired to be optimistic, and her arms throbbed from paddling, as if the muscles were being cleaved from the bones. Was this how Kotaro and Akaba felt after a tough game? And there were worries, plethora of them, clawing at her brain like restless cats. Kotaro's health, Akaba's safety, water, food, rescue. Too many things.  
  
It all must have shown on her face because Kotaro took it upon himself to ask, in a concerned voice, "You okay, Julie?"  
  
"Just worried," she admitted.  
  
"Aw, maybe I can help with that," he said. Then he cleared his throat with a cough, opened his mouth, and the sweetest sound came out.  
  
"Once there was a way to get back homeward  
Once there was a way to get back home  
Sleep pretty darling do not cry  
And I will sing a lullaby  
  
Golden slumbers fill your eyes  
Smiles awake you when you rise  
Sleep pretty darling do not cry  
And I will sing a lullaby"  
  
The melody was like warm honey that flowed into Julie's ears and spread to every part of her body. It was cathartic; even her sore muscles hurt less when he was singing. "God, Kotaro, your voice is so damn beautiful," she uttered when he finished. "What song is that?"  
  
"I don't know the name but it's by the Beatles," he said, shrugging against her lap. "It's on this CD that Akaba gave me for my birthday last year. That guy is always trying to push the Beatles on me, no matter how many times I tell him I'm an Elvis man."  
  
Julie's brow scrunched. "Akaba gave you a birthday present?"  
  
"He gives me one every year," Kotaro answered. "Since we first met. It's always a CD, his way of trying to improve my 'musical sense.' He's so strange."  
  
This was an interesting new tidbit of information. Kotaro never mentioned this, that he had gotten a gift from Akaba on his last five birthdays. One question, at the very least, had to be asked. "Do you give him anything on his birthday?"  
  
"No," he snorted. "I didn't think I had to. I mean, it's not like I asked him to give me anything."  
  
Her hands zoomed to his cheeks and squeezed, making his lips pop. "You dummy!" she snapped. "Akaba really cares about you and wants to be your friend. He's out there looking for water for your sake. You should be kinder to him."  
  
Kotaro pouted, or rather, he made the closest expression to a pout that he could manage with his cheeks still smooshed between Julie's fingertips. "Okeh, okeh, e'll dry da be ginder. Peesh leggo ob my vaish."  
  
With a gentle sigh she showed mercy on his face and removed her fingers to his bangs, combing them through the salty strands. "Do you mind singing that song for me one more time?"  
  
For his encore performance, she closed her eyes and just let his voice soak into her, free from the distraction of visual stimuli. The swish of waves lapping the shore melded with his rich baritone. His head on her lap was warmer than the fire. Julie had wanted to stay awake until Akaba returned, but was utterly helpless against the island lullaby.  
  
When her eyes next opened, it was on a sky of pale and luminous pink and lavender, the sherbet colors of dawn. Why was she waking up outside? Yesterday's events came back to her and she shot upright with a gasp. "Kotaro!"  
  
He was sprawled on the ground next to her, snoring softly, and didn't even stir at the commotion she made. His breathing was deep and slow and even. It appeared he was just fine.  
  
The reason for his return to health was in front of her eyes; a dozen or so plastic bottles in all shapes and sizes were set in a neat row on the other side of the lingering embers of their fire. Three of the bottles were empty, already drunk, but the rest were filled with clear water, the fruit of Akaba's successful mission.  
  
Julie stretched and rotated her arms. The pain in them was a bit duller now, more ache than burn. Then she reached for the closest bottle of water and gulped it down greedily. She was thirstier than she'd realized and the water was cool and clean and sweet. Once the need in her throat was slaked, she scanned her surroundings for the one responsible, eager to express some major gratitude.  
  
Akaba wasn't around the campfire with her and Kotaro. In one direction was the forest, not nearly as foreboding in the light of day, but an unlikely hangout for their friend. That only left the beach. She stood herself up on stiff legs and made the short walk down towards the shore where she spotted Akaba on an outcrop of rock. He was sitting with his legs bent in front of him, arms resting on the knees and his chin on top of that. The breeze off the ocean was blowing right in his face, whipping his red hair around like feathers. His name had never seemed so appropriate as it did right now.  
  
"So here's where I find our hero," Julie said, sitting down next to him on the rock. "You really saved the day, Akaba. I don't even know how you did it. How did you find all those bottles?"  
  
He lifted his chin off his arms and turned it towards her. "I found them washed up on the beach, trash that found its way into the ocean, maybe from thousands of kilometers away. Who'd have thought pollution could be so useful?"  
  
"And you filled them all with fresh water and brought them back here. It must have taken you all night. You should really get some sleep."  
  
"Fuu~ someone has to keep a lookout for boats," he said. "I didn't want to wake you when you looked so peaceful. And Kotaro, well, you know… I'm just so relieved that he's okay."  
  
"Me too." She was remembering how frightened Akaba had looked when Kotaro fell ill, how loving he'd looked before embarking into the woods, and combining it with the revelation of his annual birthday gifts. Suddenly Julie realized that Jessica might not be her only competition for Kotaro's affection. But how could she even broach such a subject with Akaba? "You really care a lot about Kotaro, don't you?" she asked cautiously.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well…" Dang, she felt so self-conscious trying to talk to him about this. "You're always turning the other cheek when he's a jerk to you, which is slightly more than often. You even let him in your band. And also… I know about the birthday presents, how you give him a new CD every year and never get a thing from him on your birthday."  
  
"I thought he would like them. It's no big deal." Akaba was acting very cool about this, very typical. Maybe Julie was reading the signs completely wrong. Were there even any signs?  
  
Still, she felt a need to clear things up and put it behind her by asking the most embarrassing question imaginable. She swallowed twice, took a deep breath, and said it slowly. "Akaba, are you… in love with Kotaro?"  
  
"What?" His response was something between a stammer of disbelief and a snort of amusement, as if she'd just made a particularly shocking joke.  
  
"So… does that mean you're not?" Julie asked sheepishly.  
  
Akaba shook his head, his subtle smile in place. "No, no, I'm not in love with Kotaro. Trust me, Jewels, you're the last person I'd want thinking a thing like that." He sighed and looked up at her, his face suddenly serious. "Since you've already started to put things together, I guess I will let you in on the truth. Kotaro _is_ more than a friend to me, but I'm not in love with him.” He paused for a deep breath. “He's my brother."  



	9. Chapter 9

 

Track 9: Roam

* * *

  
  
"Kotaro is your brother?" The words slipped out from Julie's lips slowly, as if each one was a question on its own. Her eyes searched Akaba's face for any hints that he was joking, but he was inscrutable as ever. "You mean he's _like_ a brother, right? Because you feel so close to him."  
  
His gaze shifted off-center and more towards the ocean. Was it embarrassment? Shyness? With Akaba, every emotion was so damn subtle it was difficult to read. "I mean we have the same father," he said calmly.  
  
"But I know Kotaro's parents," Julie said. "And I've met yours at football games. Your dads are as different from each other as the two of you are." She had no idea why she was trying to disprove what he'd said. Akaba had never been intentionally deceptive to her, and there was certainly no reason for him to lie about this. But a reveal that her two closest friends, semi-rivals with each other, were actually blood related was the kind of twist that only happened in soap operas and cheap novels.  
  
"You've met my mother and her husband," Akaba clarified for her. "She married him when I was two years old and he legally adopted me. He is my dad. But my biological father is Sasaki Koji, Kotaro's dad."  
  
The heavy weight of truth in his words sank them deep into Julie's consciousness. Everything Akaba said was factual; she could feel it in her heart that they were brothers. And now things that had little significance before gained new meaning. The odd similarities between the two otherwise contrasting boys. The lingering looks exchanged between their mothers when they crossed paths at games.  
  
A lump stuck in Julie's throat and it made her voice crack slightly when she spoke. "Kotaro's dad is such a nice guy, and he loves his wife to bits… at least, he acts like he does. How could he cheat on her?"  
  
Akaba sighed. "Well, I've only heard my mother's version of the story and she's a bit of a romantic." He turned, looked inland towards the campsite for any sign of Kotaro, and seeing no trace of him began the story.  
  
"Before Kotaro and I were born, my mother and his father were colleagues at an architecture firm. He was young and charming, and from the way my mom described him, an awful lot like Kotaro. Even though she knew he had a wife and a daughter, she couldn't help falling in love with him.  
  
"If it had only been one-sided, she probably would have just pined for him from afar. But they kept being forced together to work on projects, by fate my mom says, and it became quite clear that her feelings were reciprocated. He loved her, but he also loved his wife and family, and the temptation of having to work together as closely they did made him and my mother so tense they both considered finding different jobs. In fact, they argued over which one of them should leave, each thinking they were the more guilty party.  
  
"In the end, it was Kotaro's dad who bowed out gracefully. He told their boss that he had found another job and would be leaving as soon as his current project was finished. It was a big project, and a lot of things went wrong, so when they were finally able to wrap up, everyone who'd been working on it celebrated with champagne. Mom said they both had too much to drink and when he took her aside to say his last goodbye, well, one thing lead to another and the very thing he was trying to avoid by leaving happened."  
  
Akaba sighed softly, reflectively. "And that's how I happened."  
  
"Wow," Julie breathed, totally enrapt in his tale and hungry for more. "So when did he find out that your mom was pregnant? I mean, he did find out, right?"  
  
"He found out," Akaba said. "Mom met with him in private and told him pretty much as soon as she found out herself. She thought he deserved to know. But she refused to accept any money or other help from him, no matter how he insisted. She didn't want to be a home-wrecker.  
  
"The guy was so wracked with guilt though that he told his wife everything. It broke her poor heart. From what my mother tells me, Mrs. Sasaki went to live with her parents for a while, and probably would have left her husband for good…" Akaba stopped as if he knew that Julie was going to finish his story intuitively.  
  
"But then she found out that she was pregnant with Kotaro," she said softly.  
  
"He has no idea, but he probably inadvertently saved his parents' marriage," Akaba said. "So he and I each grew up in separate happy homes, both completely unaware of the other's existence. My mom married my dad when I was so young that I couldn't remember life without him and had no reason to suspect he wasn't the real thing.  
  
"Then when I was in seventh grade I had to do this big genealogy project for school and started snooping around through family documents. And that's how I found out. I confronted my mother about it and she told me everything I told you, didn't see a point in concealing it any longer. I asked if she had any photos of my father and she had only one, a picture she took in Ueno Park when I was about one year old. He'd been taking a walk with little Kotaro and ran into us by chance, so Mom snapped a photo of him with his two boys.  
  
"I had always wanted a little brother, so when I saw that photo I made it my mission to meet him. Sometimes I even waited outside the middle school that he went to just so I could catch a glimpse of him leaving. He was always with you. But I never talked to him, just watched from the sidelines. We didn't meet for real until the first day of high school.  
  
"Kotaro definitely was not what I expected. Ever since I had first found out I had a younger brother, I had been building up an image in my brain of what I thought he'd be like."  
  
"What kind of image was that?" Julie asked.  
  
"I pictured a little brother who was modest and thoughtful, an intelligent guy with a keen interest in science and philosophy who I could have meaningful discussions with. In my head Kotaro was the perfect brother. Up until I actually met him, that is."  
  
Laughter she couldn't help bubbled from Julie's lips and she didn’t even cover it with her hand for once. Akaba's idea of the perfect brother was pretty much the exact opposite of what he got. "But you both love American football," she reminded in a voice still toned with mirth. "And now you have being in the band in common too."  
  
"I was actually really happy when you fixed his performance problem," Akaba said. "Because it meant we wouldn't drift apart now that we go to different universities and play on different teams. He gets on my nerves like nobody else, but I have come to appreciate him for all the good things that he is: spontaneous, fearless, dedicated. He even taught me a thing or two about loyalty when I transferred to Teikoku. I don’t think I’d trade him for my perfect brother even if I could."  
  
Of all the unexpected things that Akaba had revealed to her while they sat on that rock on the beach, Julie was most touched by this last admission. It was as if all the ice that normally encased Akaba's heart had melted, even if just for a brief moment, and he was letting her see it unprotected. "You really do love him as a brother," she said tenderly. "Even though he has no idea."  
  
His eyes looked deep into hers and she was suddenly overcome with a feeling that underneath those red contact lenses were smoky grey irises just like Kotaro's. "He might never know," Akaba said, half sighing. "If his parents never tell him."  
  
Julie blinked in surprise. "You mean, you're never going to tell him yourself?"  
  
He shrugged coolly. "It's not really my place to tell him. He might not even want to know. You know how he idolizes his old man and I would hate to ruin his image of the guy. But I'm happy as long as I can just spend time with him. And with you, Jewels." He reached out and tucked a stray strand of blue hair behind her ear and a wave of shivers coursed down her body. "My guitar, football, and the two of you are all I need to be happy."  
  
The shudder his touch caused somehow entered her bloodstream and traveled to her heart, making it take up an uncomfortably strong rhythm. It wasn't pounding as furiously as it did that time Kotaro almost kissed her; no, it wasn't like Kotaro-induced palpitations. But it was the first time she'd ever had such a reaction to Akaba and it startled her.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Kotaro's shout caught Julie so off-guard that her galloping heart seemed to jump into her throat and stop completely. "Kotaro!" she gasped, turning around to see him just a few meters away and moving closer. "You scared the hell out of me."  
  
When he reached their rocky perch, the suspicion on his face was obvious. "You two are looking awfully chummy," he snorted, leaning close to scrutinize their expressions. "What were you talking about that was so engrossing you jumped when I called you?"  
  
Julie's mouth fell open, but the noise that came out could barely be considered language. "I… uh… well…" She was never good at on the spot lying.  
  
"We were talking about the World Cup championship game against America," Akaba smoothly improvised. "I was telling Julie that I never once regretted my decision to only take part in the kick team. After all, the kick team is more important than most people give credit to. Wouldn't you agree, Kotaro?"  
  
"You got that right," he said confidently. Then he squeezed himself between them, pushing the two apart with his shoulders to make the space wide enough to accommodate him, and sat down. "Nothing is more important than the kick team."  
  
Julie's back and abdominal muscles, which had apparently been tensed in apprehension, unclenched and it felt like a full-body sigh of relief. Akaba had successfully deflected Kotaro's suspicion.  
  
He finished his speech about the indispensability of the kick team (which Julie and Akaba both knew by heart by now), and there was a moment of silence as the three Bando alumni stared out on a vast, empty Pacific Ocean. "No sign of our cruise ship?"  
  
"No sign of any ship," Akaba answered without turning to look at him. "I don't think they're coming for us."  
  
Kotaro and Julie stammered in unison. "What?" And of course Akaba had said it in a perfectly calm and serious way; analytical once again after showing Julie a glimpse of his emotional depth just minutes before. "You really don't think they’re coming back for us?" she asked.  
  
Akaba's eyes narrowed to red slivers, focused on the undisturbed line between dark sea and pale sky. "I think if they were searching for us, they'd have found us by now. That is, of course, if they are looking in the right place. And that all depends on how soon our disappearance was discovered and whether or not Jessica gave an accurate account of when we went over."  
  
A loud hiss issued from between Kotaro's teeth and Julie and Akaba on either side of him turned inward. He was seething; jaw clenched, eyebrows fiercely angled, his fists were pumping. "That damn Jessica," he growled through his closed mouth. "The next time I see that witch, I'm gonna…!" He didn't actually say what he was going to do, but he swung his arms and punched the air in front of him, making his friends draw back in alarm.  
  
"You're going to beat her up?" Akaba asked, unimpressed. "If you want to take the woman down, I'm sure there is a more effective and less crude method than resorting to physical violence. You're still in a rage now. You need time to cool down and use your brain."  
  
"Using your brain," Kotaro said contemptuously. "That's your solution to everything. Well I suppose you think we can use our brains to get off this island, too. God, you're such a nerd, Akaba. A big ol' guitar-obsessed, red-haired nerd!"  
  
"Stop it!" Julie snapped, stomping to her feet. "Can't you spend any sustained amount of time around Akaba without saying something horrible to him? This has been going on for four years now and it's enough! Akaba cares more about you than you'll ever realize, Kotaro, but you continue to abuse him!"  
  
Both boys were silent, blinking up at her in an astonished sort of way, and she suddenly realized how completely overblown her reaction was to a very minor jab from Kotaro. Normally she would have just rolled her eyes and sighed, but the knowledge of their blood connection colored everything differently now, made her react differently.  
  
"Uh… Are you alright?" Kotaro asked, one eyebrow raised. You seem kind of…" He didn't have a word to describe her behavior.  
  
"S-sorry," she said hurriedly, cheeks hot with embarrassment. "It's just the stress of this whole situation. We're all salty and dirty and hungry, but we're in this together so we have to get along." Actually, the one good thing about being on this island was that she could use it as an excuse for just about any atypical behavior.  
  
She looked down at Kotaro rather sheepishly and his puzzled expression blossomed into a wide smile. "No need to apologize, Julie. I'm not feeling totally myself either, kind of un-smart for the first time in my life."  
  
"That is shocking," Akaba remarked, not sounding the slightest bit shocked. "Okay, right now I think we need to consider Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs."  
  
"Lazlo's what?" Kotaro snorted.  
  
"Fuu~ It means we have to take care of our most basic needs before we try to deal with more complex needs, like getting off this island. We have air to breath and water to drink, but we need…" Akaba was interrupted by an angry growl from Kotaro's stomach before he could even say the word food.  
  
"I'm extra hungry because I barfed up everything I ate yesterday," Kotaro whined. "So are we going to search this place for something to eat or what?"  
  
Akaba stood up slowly, brushed the sand from his jeans and stretched his neck and shoulders. He'd been sitting there watching the horizon since before Julie showed up, possibly for hours, and he must have been pretty stiff. "That's the plan," he said. "If any ship comes close enough they will see our life raft on the beach and know someone is here, so we don't need to worry about straying from the campsite for a few hours."  
  
"If we're going into the woods," asked Julie, "do you think you could show me where you got the water last night, Akaba? I want to wash the salt and sand out of my hair if I can."  
  
"I'll take you," Akaba said. "No problem."  
  
The trio took some supplies from the raft: matches, flashlight, and the first aid kit, and packed them into Kotaro's lunchbox alongside his treasures—he refused to leave anything out to make more room. Then they headed into the forest with Akaba leading the way.  
  
The flora on the island looked distinctly tropical indicating they hadn't ventured too far north before they went overboard. The trees were tall and dense, garlanded with green vines so thick you couldn't even see the bark on some. From the little gaps in the canopy, sunlight lasered through and cast a mottled yellow glow on the forest floor, on coiled ferns and red flowers the size of dinner plates. Bird noises and bug noises and what Julie suspected were frog noises permeated the jungle fug from every direction.  
  
But Akaba moved confidently between tree trunks and over rotting logs. He had already journeyed to the water source and back in the dark several times and seemed like he knew the route by heart now. Kotaro and Julie did their best to keep pace with him, but they hadn't been out here before and were more easily distracted by their exotic setting.  
  
"How big do you suppose this island is?" Kotaro asked as his gaze swung from one side to the other to take it all in. "For all we know there could be other people here."  
  
"It's possible," Akaba said, a meter or so ahead but still close enough to hear.  
  
Julie was walking right alongside Kotaro, enjoying his company and trying not to think of him differently now that she knew he was Akaba's brother. If she was giving off any vibes that she knew something juicy, Kotaro wasn't picking up on them. Oblivious as always.  
  
"Hey," he said excitedly. "If there are other people on this island maybe it will lead to a bunch of weird, paranormal stuff happening. Just like on this really cool American TV show we watched while in the States, where these people get stranded on an island and then all these mysterious things start to happen. The plot is kind of confusing, though, so I sometimes have to have Akaba explain it to me. Hey Akaba! What was the name of that show again?"  
  
"Gilligan's Island," Akaba called back.  
  
"That's it! Gilligan's Island! Very freaky stuff…"  
  
Julie laughed and listened to him describe various outlandish plots as they hiked, comforted by how familiar his rambling voice was in such an alien setting. She was glad she had put on sneakers to go to the concert instead of sandals. The terrain under foot was laden with slippery moss, tangled vines and tree roots, and loose rocks; she almost tripped once, but Kotaro caught her.  
  
When he'd run out of things to say about Gilligan and his wacky misadventures, all talking ceased and other, quieter sounds took its place. The myriad small creatures still hummed. The undergrowth squished and crunched beneath three pairs of feet stepping in three different rhythms. And beyond that there was moving water. Julie caught sight of an opening in the trees ahead of them, golden sunlight pouring through it, and quickened her pace.  
  
It was breathtaking, the sort of place described in children's fairytales. A stream that carved a neat winding course through the jungle tumbled over a rocky ledge and collected here in a pool so clear you could see the stones on the bottom. Water plants flourished around the edges and Julie half expected to see a little nymph poke its head up through the pristine surface.  
  
"This place is beautiful," she said.  
  
Akaba, who had a contented air about him, nodded and said, "I'm glad I can share it with you, Jewels. I think me and Kotaro will look for food and let you bathe in privacy, but we'll stay within shouting range. Does that sound okay?"  
  
She bobbed her head. "That sounds perfect. Just… stay together. And be safe."  
  
After Akaba assured her that they would, the two boys retreated back into the forest, Kotaro a bit reluctantly, his neck craning around to look at her every meter or two until he was too far away and too deep in the trees to see anymore. He was clearly not completely comfortable with leaving her by herself in the woods like this.  
  
Julie sighed only briefly and began to undress, one garment at a time. It felt weird to be naked outside, but the warm tropical air on body parts that weren't used to exposure was more exhilarating than embarrassing. Before she did anything else, she rinsed out her clothes in the water, swirling them around and rubbing to get all the salt out, and then laid them out to dry in the sun on a flat patch of rock. Then she stepped into the shallowest part of the pool, and finding that the water was the perfect temperature, ventured in up to her neck.  
  
Truly splendid! Like a hot spring without the hot. The miniature waterfall where the stream fell over the rocks was like a natural showerhead, perfect to rinse her hair under. But even after she felt sufficiently clean and refreshed, her clothes were still wet, so she decided it wouldn't hurt to frolic in the water a bit. After all, when would she be back on this deserted island again?  
  
As Julie played in the water, her mind was on Kotaro and Akaba. They were brothers—technically, half-brothers—and while Akaba had known for years, Kotaro didn't have any clue. The more she thought about it the more her affection for both boys grew, swelling warmly inside her until it filled her whole chest. It also made her feel a pang of loneliness for Harumi back in Japan, even though it had been less than a week since they'd seen each other.  
  
But at least Kotaro and Akaba were together. Maybe being caught up in a plot that would give Gilligan and the Skipper a run for their money could bring the two brothers closer. Even if Kotaro never found out, Julie hoped that he would always let Akaba be a part of his life.  
  
 _Glurggle_  
  
She also hoped that the two of them were finding food out there in the jungle. Almost as soon as she thought it her eyes spotted a speckling of red on the rocky ledge near the fall and she moved closer. It was a wild strawberry shrub sprouting robustly out of the dirt between two slabs of stone, its green stems clustered with fat, crimson berries. Julie plucked one and popped it in her mouth greedily, with little thought to whether it was truly a strawberry and not something exotic and poisonous. It tasted like golden sunlight and clean water and she hastily went about collecting the rest to share with her boys when they returned.  
  
Then she felt it; cold, slimy claws gripped onto the sides of her arms and her heart leapt into her mouth. Dropping the strawberries into the pool with a quick series of ker-plops, she spun around and found herself face-to-face with a monstrous creature as tall as a grown man, coated thickly with dark, foul-smelling mud.  
  
"S-swamp monster!" she croaked, and the thing let out a low rumbling laugh at her expense. How had it snuck up on her undetected? The falling water drowned out the sound but the smell…  
  
No time to think! She had to act. She swung an arm in front of her at full strength and it crashed into the creature's muddy side, making it wince and whine "Ow!" in a vaguely familiar voice.  
  
But Julie was too rattled to think about it. She struck again from the other side and the creature pulled back. Her hand reached for it and the fingers hooked onto part of it under the water as it tried to escape. The creature squawked and struggled, attempting to swim away as she yanked back on whatever it was she'd caught, something elastic. Then she felt something tear. The monster disappeared under the water, now murky with the mud dissolving from its body, and Julie was left holding the article of clothing she had ripped off of it.  
  
The swamp creature surfaced a few meters away. "Not. Smart," it panted. He panted. For now Julie could see quite clearly that it wasn't a monster at all.  
  
"Kotaro? What the hell is wrong with you? Attacking me from behind?"  
  
Most of his mud disguise was now swirling in the water between them, leaving just a very wet and startled Kotaro. "I wasn’t attacking," he insisted. "I was just trying to give you a good scare. You're the one who attacked and then you ripped off my…"  
  
His voice went silent as Julie lifted the soaking pair of black silk boxers out of the water. She looked at the underpants and then over at Kotaro, eyes trailing from his smooth, wet chest down to where the water was quickly clearing to reveal... "Oh god!" she shrieked, eyes squeezing tightly, finger pointing accusingly. "You… You're completely naked!"  
  
"Yeah, thanks to you," he snorted. Then his voice became quiet and awkward all of the sudden. "Um… Julie, you're… not exactly wearing clothes either."  
  
Julie gasped in horror and spun away from him. "Turn around!" she stammered. "Turn around, Kotaro! Don't look!"  
  
"Yeah! I'm turning!" he shot back frantically. "I… I didn't see anything. I swear. Did you?"  
  
"No!" she said adamantly. "No, I… well… I sort of caught a glimpse of something, but I closed my eyes before I got a good look!" She could feel her whole body blushing, her whole naked body. Her heart pounded fiercely with humiliation. Or was it maybe… excitement?  
  
"Look," Kotaro said, and from the sound of it, Julie could tell he was facing the other direction as he claimed. "I didn't know you were naked when I snuck up on you. I thought you would be in your underwear, which is just like a bathing suit really, and…"  
  
"I know," she said. Her own voice sounded so shy and embarrassed, so girly. "You wouldn't do something like that. So let's just slowly move towards our clothes without turning around and looking at each other."  
  
"Do you still have my boxers?" he asked sheepishly.  
  
Julie looked down at her empty hands. "Crap! I must have dropped them without noticing when I saw your… when I saw that you were naked. But they were ripped anyways, right? You'll just have to go commando."  
  
"Right, right," he chuckled nervously. "So do we just move to opposite banks now?"  
  
But she was already moving stiffly towards the rock where she'd laid her clothes, breathing in and out slowly, heart thudding so loudly she was surprised it didn't send ripples through the water. She was so focused on the task at hand that when something slithered against her bare skin, she jumped. Then she looked; gliding on the surface of the pool was one of the very few things that genuinely frightened her.  
  
"S-s-snake!" she shrieked, and forgetting all modesty thrashed over to Kotaro, who turned his head despite their agreement.  
  
"Snake?" he asked, puzzled. Then he saw it and staggered back, and Julie remembered that he was just as scared of the legless creeps as she was. "Holy shit!" He grabbed her and pulled her protectively against his body, and, too freaked out to object, she clung to him as tightly as he clung to her.  
  
They trembled together like a single naked entity, their eyes and attention all focused on the little s-shaped reptile. Only after it had disappeared into a distant clump of water grass did they become acutely aware that their nude bodies were pressed together snugly. Before they had time to untangle, though, a voice cut in from the bank.  
  
"I assume there is a story behind this?"  
  
"Akaba!" Julie squeaked as she scrambled away from Kotaro. "There was a snake. We got scared."  
  
He was standing on the edge of the pool with an armful of bright green and orange fruits he'd foraged and staring at the two of them with a subtle mix of shock and embarrassment on his face. "And you are naked because…?"  
  
With a little gasp she wrapped one arm over her chest and used the other to shield her lower region. Great, now both of them had seen her in the buff. "Well, I was bathing," she said peevishly. "Peter Pantsless here snuck up behind me and scared me half to death."  
  
Kotaro snorted. "I wasn't pantsless until you yanked 'em off me, wild woman." Both of his hands were being used to cover his most private body parts and his face was as red as those wild strawberries she'd found earlier.  
  
Akaba leaned forward, examined their faces the way Kotaro had when he joined them on the beach that morning. "Fuu~ I guess there's only one thing to do." And with that statement he set down his bounty, stripped off his clothes, and joined them in the water.  
  
A heart attack or stroke seemed imminent with how aggressively the blood was pumping through Julie's arteries. "How is this the only thing to do?" she asked frantically as she backed as far away from her two naked friends as she could get as fast as possible.  
  
For other young women this would be a fantasy: nude swimming with two handsome rock star brothers in a paradisiacal island pool. But for Julie it was the most mortifying experience imaginable. The two people she felt closest to were seeing her utterly exposed, all her flaws and assets out on display.  
  
"You need to relax, Jewels," Akaba said coolly. "You're thinking too much about the nakedness. Empty your mind of any feelings of inadequacy and shame and just concentrate on the feel of the water. The waves your body makes are like music. Can you feel it around you?"  
  
"Oh shut up," Kotaro barked. "Music has nothing to do with it. Don't listen to him, Julie. You should focus on how good it feels not to be smothered and tied down with needless clothes."  
  
"I like clothes," she said. "I plan to make a career based on clothes, remember?" But she was already starting to feel more at ease. This wasn't really that bad. It was like a coed bath, sort of. She wasn't going to deny that it had an exciting quality to it, a wild, American, rock star quality.  
  
Nervously, she moved a little closer. Paused shyly. Moved a little closer. Then came a shout of English that stopped her in her tracks.  
  
"Halt!"  
  
Three pairs of Spider eyes darted to the edges of the jungle where the sound had come from and suddenly they realized that they were surrounded. At least a dozen men in olive green uniforms were emerging from the trees all around the pool, and every single one of them was pointing a rifle at the naked trio. Six arms flew up in the air. Kotaro's eyes shot over to Julie and with a little gasp of alarm he dropped his arms and used them to swim in front of her.  
  
There was a murmur of discontent among the armed men and a shuffling of boots as they closed in tighter.  
  
"You shouldn't have moved, Kotaro," she whispered anxiously through her teeth. "I don't want you getting killed for trying to protect me from some gawks and stares."  
  
"I'd be dying for a worthy cause," he whispered back proudly. "Besides, I don't think they're really going to shoot."  
  
One of the men, who wore a slightly different style uniform and seemed to be the leader, stepped forward, his gun shifting targets between Kotaro, Akaba, and Julie. He said something in English that she didn't understand and Akaba answered. The man immediately lowered his gun in response to whatever it was that Akaba said then gave an order to the rest of his party and they lowered their weapons too.  
  
"What did you tell him?" Kotaro asked eagerly.  
  
Akaba ignored him and kept talking with the gunman. Only a few words were familiar to Julie: ocean, boat, president, and she was almost certain she heard the word pineapple in there (though it didn't make much sense). There were little nods being exchanged along with the words, which made her feel hopeful. Suddenly Akaba looked over at her, and then quickly back at the man, to whom he said one last thing. The man nodded curtly, barked an order, and like soldiers, he and the other men turned around and marched back into the woods.  
  
Kotaro and Julie turned immediately to their friend.  
  
"He said we're trespassing on private property," Akaba explained. "Apparently this entire island is privately owned. These men came from a nearby pineapple plantation."  
  
"Who carries guns on a pineapple plantation?" Kotaro asked incredulously.  
  
"He said their president equipped them. He also said that this president is currently visiting the plantation and that he speaks fluent Japanese. The man is going to take us to him."  
  
"That's great!" Julie chirped. "He'll be able to help us get off this island! We're saved! But, uh… why did they all leave?"  
  
"To give us privacy to get dressed," Akaba answered.  
  
Suddenly remembering that they were all stark naked, Julie yelped and covered herself with her arms. "Both of you close your eyes!"  
  
"But you didn't seem so self-conscious before," said Kotaro.  
  
"Just close 'em!" she demanded.  
  
She scrambled out of the water and dressed herself as fast as she possibly could. Her clothes were dry by now and warm from the sun. Then she closed her eyes to give the boys the same courtesy they gave her, but not before accidentally catching an eyeful of Kotaro's bare backside. It was not a bad sight by any means.  
  
Fully clothed and at least two thirds embarrassed, the trio headed back into the jungle where they found the leader of the plantation guards waiting, his gun strapped to his back. They followed him, in silence at first, but soon Kotaro started to fidget and adjust his black jeans.  
  
"Why'd you have to rip my undies?" he complained. "Going commando is not smart. It chafes like crazy."  
  
Julie just sighed and shook her head.  
  
They hadn't even traveled half a kilometer when the forest abruptly ended and they stepped out of the trees into a wide, open valley sloping down to the ocean. Situated in the middle of the grassy clearing were two large buildings, side-by-side, a massive rectangle of red brick and a pure white mansion flanked with columns. There were wind-farming towers, too, giant white propellers that must have provided power to the facilities.  
  
"How do you suppose we missed a place like this?" Kotaro marveled as he took the whole scene in.  
  
"Fuu~ We just hadn't ventured deep enough," Akaba replied. When they passed the red brick building, he read the big sign on it out loud. "King Mukuro Pineapples."  
  
"Do you think this King Mukuro is the president?" Kotaro asked curiously. "His name sounds Japanese."  
  
"I think that's just the name of the company," said Julie. "He's the president of a pineapple company, not a king."  
  
But as soon as she set foot inside the white mansion she started having doubts about her claim. This place was certainly fit for a king. The floor in the foyer was solid marble, buffed to a sheen so brilliant it reflected the blue sky and white clouds that the high glass ceiling let in.  
  
Kotaro, Julie, and Akaba were led up the grand mahogany staircase and then down a hallway lined with fine paintings in ornate gilt frames. Their guide said nothing, even when they reached a set of double doors with shiny brass knobs that undoubtedly opened to the president's office.  
  
He let them inside but held up his hand for them to wait near the entrance while he hurried across the ostentatious office to an enormous wooden desk and a high-backed chair that was turned around to face the enormous window behind it. The guard whispered something to the unseen president, paused while he waited for instructions, and then hurried back to the trio, indicating with a nod and a sweeping hand gesture for them to approach.  
  
"I kind of feel like we're meeting the Wizard of Oz," Julie said nervously.  
  
"Well, you've got the scarecrow with you," Kotaro said, linking his arm with hers.  
  
"And the tin woodsman," Akaba added, doing the same on her other side.  
  
So the three of them walked together, and for some reason, Julie's heart was pounding. They stopped in front of the desk and as the chair slowly swiveled they heard the president let out a familiar demonic cackle.  
  
"Kekeke!"

 


	10. Chapter 10

 

Track 10: Somebody’s Watching Me

* * *

  
  
The trademark cackle gave him away before his pointy face was revealed, but that wasn't nearly enough time to dispel the shock. Julie wasn't prepared to find herself suddenly confronted by the sadistic glare of Hiruma Youichi. When she looked to her left, she was relieved to see that Kotaro's expression was just as stunned as hers. To her right, however, Akaba was so perfectly composed it was almost irritating.  
  
"Hello, Hiruma," he said. "So I take it this is the one you were referring to in Kumabukuro Riko's interview?"  
  
"That's right. I'm surprised you remember, Fucking Red Eyes," Hiruma replied. "Though not nearly as surprised as I am to be greeting you and your entourage here." Actually, he didn't seem surprised at all. He seemed like he was expecting them.  
  
"Who's whose entourage?" Kotaro asked rudely. "If anything, Akaba is me and Julie's entourage. After all, he's the one who followed us off the end of the ship. And what is this interview you're referring to? Why is a guy like you the president of a pineapple company?"  
  
Hiruma tilted back his throne-like leather desk chair. Even when he was in a relaxed position there was a wicked, calculating air about him. "Still don't know how to keep your trap closed I see, Fucking Sideburns. The whole island belongs to me; the pineapple plantation merely came with it, making me the president, owner, and sole shareholder. I only visit two or three times a year to check in on my assets. How fortunate for me that your trespassing coincided with one of my stays."  
  
"Fortunate for you?" Kotaro asked raising an eyebrow.  
  
Julie felt dread pooling in her stomach.  
  
"Fortunate for _all_ of us," Hiruma said as slyly as a used car salesman. "Now please, indulge me with the story of how Fucking Sideburns, Fucking Red Eyes, and Fucking…" He paused for only a moment to think of the best nickname for Julie. "Blue Hair came to be skinny dipping in _my_ stream on _my_ island."  
  
So he knew about the naked swimming. Julie's cheeks flushed hotly. Since it was Hiruma they were dealing with, she had to wonder if he had been watching them through some sort of surveillance camera. The thought made her whole face blaze. Kotaro and Akaba seeing her nude body was one thing, but Hiruma Youichi getting a free show was just too much.  
  
"Isn't it headline news yet?" Kotaro asked their host. "The front man and guitarist from a super famous Japanese rock band fell overboard from a cruise ship. That's a pretty damn big deal you know."  
  
"Super famous?" Hiruma asked sardonically. "What did you say your band was called again?"  
  
It was hard to tell whether Kotaro was baffled or  fuming over the comment since both emotions manifested almost indistinguishably in him. One finger pointed challengingly at the long-eared devil while his other hand shook the metal lunchbox he was still carrying, causing its contents to rattle. "You haven't heard of Daddy Long Legs? We're only the best singing band Japan has ever produced!"  
  
Akaba pressed his forehead into his fingertips and sighed. "Fuu~ You just replaced kicking with singing and team with band." He turned his attention diplomatically to Hiruma, who was spinning a jeweled globe of Earth on his desk with one finger. "We fell off of the ship only yesterday evening, so I wouldn't expect it to be a headline yet, though I am sure it is on the internet somewhere already. You see, Daddy Long Legs was to be the featured entertainment on the maiden voyage of a new cruise ship, but unfortunately Kotaro and Julie went over board while attempting to retrieve an item stolen by his girlfriend."  
  
" _Ex_ -girlfriend," Kotaro interjected. "But Akaba here jumped ship by choice."  
  
"I went in the water after them," Akaba confirmed in a brittle voice. "We would have remained drifting in our life raft until rescue came, but Kotaro got violently seasick. So we sought refuge on this island, which turned out to be yours."  
  
Hiruma tented his fingers and flashed his razor-sharp grin. "Yes, what an interesting turn of events. Now I assume you’ll want to be reunited with your bandmates to resume your concert tour as soon as possible. I can arrange that." He paused, a vicious glint in his eyes, and Julie anticipated, with trepidation, the conditions of his aide. "It will cost you, of course."  
  
"We know," Julie sighed. "You have to understand, though, that we really don't have much to offer. Will that stop you from helping us?"  
  
"Of course not," he said with glaringly fake compassion. "It isn't my nature to ask for payment up front. I collect what's owed me on my own schedule.”  
  
Kotaro flashed a nervous grin at their freelance savior. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to give us a discount on account of Akaba being your ace tight end.”  
  
Hiruma barked out a single staccato laugh. “HA! Considering that Fucking Red Eyes is missing summer training camp for this little adventure, I should charge you double!”  
  
“Well _you’re_ not at training camp either,” Kotaro said contentiously. “So what have you got to say about that?”  
  
“Stop, Kotaro,” Julie said, raising her hand in front of him to make sure he’d heard. “I’m pretty sure the more any of us objects, the higher our bill will climb.” With a sigh, she turned to Hiruma. “You’ve pretty much got us all over a barrel here, so I guess we have no choice but to agree to your terms.”  
  
His grin spread gleefully to the edges of his face. “Splendid! Oh, but in order for me to feel secure that you won't try to back out of paying your debt, I will be requiring just the teensiest bit of collateral."  
  
"All we've got are the clothes we were wearing when we fell into the ocean," Julie said.  
  
Their host gave a quiet little snort, a smug expression on his devilish features. "As eager as you seem to be to strip once again, I won't be taking any of your clothes."  
  
There was a metallic clatter to Julie's left and she turned her head to find Kotaro hugging his lunchbox against his chest possessively. Eyes narrowed, lower jaw jutting, he was challenging Hiruma to ask for it.  
  
But Hiruma just rolled his eyes. "I don't want your stupid lunchbox, Fucking Sideburns, so just relax."  
  
Now when Hiruma Youichi said 'relax,' it by no means indicated that he didn’t have something dreadful in store, merely that resistance was futile so you might as well just sit down and shut up. Whatever he had in mind as collateral, he would get it from them. Julie's stomach clenched as he pulled open a desk drawer and his face lit up with cruel delight.  
  
"What's this? It appears I already have collateral." He pulled out a small device, a miniature hard drive that plugs into a USB port. "It's stored on this hard drive."  
  
"What's stored on it?" Kotaro demanded.  
  
"The footage from the security cameras, of course. I knew installing them around that jungle pool was a good idea. And investing in high-definition zoom lenses was pure genius."  
  
"Zoom lenses?" Julie choked. "You mean…"  
  
Before she could even say anything, Hiruma chimed in, cheerfully businesslike. "That's right. I know you three will pay back your debts at my bidding because if you don't, your hi-def naked naughty bits will be all over the World Wide Web for anyone to see."  
  
Akaba shrugged coolly. "I don't care who sees my body."  
  
"Maybe so," Hiruma said coyly. "But how do you feel about the whole world feasting their eyes on your pretty little manager? There's a lot more footage of her than there is of you or Fucking Sideburns. They'll be able to count the freckles on her ass."  
  
There was silence as Akaba's fists tightened at his sides and his eyes closed. "There's no need to point that out. We will pay you back for any services rendered because it is the right thing to do."  
  
Suddenly Kotaro set down his lunchbox and slammed both hands on Hiruma's desk, drawing everyone's stares. "Did you watch it?" he barked. "Did you watch Julie bathing?"  
  
Ignoring him completely, Hiruma continued to communicate with Akaba. "There's a shipment going out to the continental US tomorrow that you three can ride with. For tonight, arrangements will be made for you to stay here. Do any of you have any special requirements?"  
  
"I require that you tell me how much you saw of Julie on that video, you pervert!" Kotaro was still pounding his fists on the desk as he shouted, flicking droplets of spittle in Hiruma's face with each word. But once again his interrogation went ignored by everyone but Julie, who touched his forearm in attempt to calm him.  
  
"We'd like the use of a computer and access to the internet," Akaba said. "If that can be arranged."  
  
"I aim to please," Hiruma hissed merrily. "I'll factor it into your bill along with room and board, food, water usage, electricity, fresh air, sunlight…" He was lost in his own little world, adding up their myriad fees in his head, when suddenly he stopped and glared at the trio as if they were interrupting his favorite leisure activity. "What are you still doing in my office? I'm very busy. Go! Fucking Chief Guard will show you to your room."  
  
Then he waved them away impatiently with his hand and the trio got out of that office as quickly as they could.  
  
Outside in the hallway, the same man who had brought them in—the chief guard according to Hiruma's epithet—was waiting, as still as a statue. His instructions must have already been received, since he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Without saying a single word, he led Julie, Kotaro, and Akaba through the hallways of the mansion, turning several corners, and came to a stop in front of a door. A nod indicated that it was their lodgings, and then he took his leave.  
  
"I swear that guy is one of Tetsuma's long lost relatives," Kotaro said once their guide was out of listening range. "Well, I guess we can't be mad that we have to share a room."  
  
"We're just lucky to have a place to stay," Akaba said predictably. Then he pushed open the door and Kotaro shoved past him to get through first.  
  
"Holy... pineapples," he uttered, and the other two hurried inside to see what was so shocking.  
  
The room was spacious and neat, but what made it different from any other spacious and neat room was the décor, which definitely followed a theme. On every wall were hung framed paintings of pineapples. The curtains that bracketed a large window with an ocean view were pineapple print. The lamp next to the bed was shaped like a pineapple. Oh yes, there was only one bed, a king-sized four-poster made of mahogany, and crowning each post was an elegantly carved pineapple. Even the bedspread was pineapples, a different fabric from the curtains.  
  
Kotaro was making a face. "What exactly is Hiruma trying to pull? Is this some kind of sick, twisted mind game?"  
  
Akaba answered slowly as he continued to explore the room with his eyes. "Maybe he just really, really likes pineapples."  
  
At this point, Julie heard the things the boys were saying but wasn't really listening, too busy flopping herself backward onto the fruity bed. After spending last night exposed to the elements on the hard ground, this bed could have dung beetle print sheets and Julie would still think it was heaven on Earth. From her new vantage point she noticed a door in the corner of the room that had slipped her attention before.  
  
"Hey, we get our own bathroom," she said, getting up and walking over to check it out. "There's a toilet, shower, bath, even soaps and shampoo. It's like a hotel."  
  
"Do you guys see what's going on here?" Kotaro grumbled. "All this fancy stuff is just more fees that Hiruma is adding to our bill. He's just going to use it as an excuse to keep us in his debt for as long as possible and keep our nudie video hostage. He'll be watching your naked body every single day, Julie. I can't stand it!"  
  
She rolled her eyes at him as usual. "I don’t think he intends to watch it. The video is just a bargaining chip. But Hiruma is our only way off this island so we don't have a choice but to accept it. Now, do either of you mind if I take a quick shower?"  
  
"Not at all," said Akaba.  
  
"Check for cameras first," Kotaro warned.  
  
Rational as she acted, Julie really did loathe the idea of Hiruma Youichi having that footage, whether he watched it or not. And she did check for hidden cameras—and thankfully found none—before undressing to get in the shower. The jungle pool had been cold and refreshing, but for getting clean, steaming hot water and soap did a better job.  
  
There was a big white towel—embroidered with a pineapple embellishment of course—hanging on a rack next to the shower and she used it to dry off. She was about to change back into her clothes when she saw that there were three fluffy bathrobes hanging from hooks. She put one of them on before wrapping the towel around her head and exiting the bathroom.  
  
Akaba had settled into a chair and was practicing silent chords on an invisible guitar. Kotaro was sprawled on the bed, tinkering with the contents of his metal lunchbox. Both of them were dead silent.  
  
"Anything exciting happen?" she asked.  
  
"Not a thing," Kotaro sighed. "Still waiting for that computer so we can check what people are saying about us." He sat up and stretched. "I guess it would be smart of me to take a shower too. I've still got some of that mud in my hair."  
  
When Kotaro closed the bathroom door behind him, Julie took his vacated spot on the bed, alone with Akaba for the first time since he had told her about his parentage and his connection to Kotaro. And for the first time ever, she felt a little awkward around him. He had shared with her his biggest secret and now they were both keeping it from the young man in the shower, the most important person in both their lives.  
  
"Some day, huh?" she commented to ease the atmosphere.  
  
Akaba was still bent over his imaginary guitar, but he looked up when she spoke and her eyes automatically searched his features for glimmers of Kotaro. Is this how it would be from now on? Would she always look at one of them and see traces of the other, reminding her of the secret she had to keep?  
  
"Definitely a strange twenty-four hours," Akaba said. "I have to apologize for what happened earlier. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable by getting into the pool with you and Kotaro. I just figured that since he and I had seen each other in the shower after practice, and he and you had just seen each other naked, we might as well all just see each other naked to make things even all around."  
  
She had actually managed to put the whole naked swimming incident at the back of her mind until he brought it up again. Now her face was warm with embarrassment. "Don't worry. I didn't see anything too juicy," she chuckled nervously. "Or if I did, it wasn't a good enough look that I remember."  
  
"Fuu~ I wouldn't mind," he said casually. "I wouldn't have taken my clothes off if I was ashamed for you to see my naked body."  
  
How could he say it so calmly? There wasn't even a trace of self-consciousness in his voice and for some reason that made her feel more self-conscious. Leave it to Akaba to open his heart in the morning and revert to being serenely inscrutable by afternoon. If she were having the same conversation with Kotaro, his face would be as red as a tomato and he'd stammer or garble all his words rather cutely.  
  
Right when she was thinking about him, the hiss of the shower stopped and a minute later the door opened to let out a very clean Kotaro amidst coils of steam. He was wearing a bathrobe just like Julie's. It was even the same size, she theorized, as it revealed much more of his long legs than it did of hers. Not helping the matter was her knowledge that he was not wearing anything underneath it, but at least everything was covered.  
  
"I guess it's your turn, Akaba," he said. "If you like the robe, there's one for you in there, too."  
  
"Excellent," Akaba answered, possibly sarcastic; it was hard to tell. He stood up from the chair and nodded at Julie. "I'll be out in a few."  
  
Now it was Kotaro who Julie was alone with, but she didn't feel awkward with him like she had when it was just her and Akaba. With Kotaro she felt an entirely different kind of awkward that was multiplied tenfold by that stupid, dangerously short bathrobe.  
  
"We look smart in matching robes, don't you think?" he said.  
  
"Definitely smart," she said, trying not to let her gaze linger too long on his bare legs or on that exposed triangle of chest below his neck. Akaba may be perfectly laid-back about nudity, but she definitely wasn't, at least when it came to Kotaro. The sight of his skin sent her mind zooming back to when she was pressed up against it because of that damn snake. Yes! It was the snake's fault she was turning into a pervert.  
  
She tried not to think about it by focusing on his face. Recent events may have made her more keenly aware of what an attractive body he had, but when she looked in his grey eyes he was still her Kotaro. She saw the silly boy who talked her into being the Spiders' manager just so he could hang out with her after school and her heart overflowed with affection.  
  
"Come here," she chirped.  
  
His ears pricked at the sound of it and he happily took a seat next to her on the bed's edge. "So what do you want to talk…? Hey!"  
  
She'd caught him off guard by yanking the towel off her head and throwing it over his, but he ceased his protest the moment she started messaging it into his hair to dry it off. When she finished, his mane was still a shaggy mess. So she got up and retrieved the flip comb from the back pocket of his discarded jeans, sat down behind him on the bed, and began gently raking it through his tresses.  
  
"Julie, you… you're combing my hair." He uttered the words as if it was the most shockingly intimate act imaginable and that made Julie suddenly feel like it actually was.  
  
"Well, you spend so much time doing it, I wanted to see what the big deal was," she said as she delicately worked out a snarl, trying her best to cause him no pain. "Your hair is really soft." It smelled good too, but she decided to keep that thought to herself.  
  
"Jessica always snorted and made a face whenever I whipped out a comb," Kotaro said. "Sometimes she would snatch it out of my hand and throw it in the trash. I’ve gone through about a dozen combs on this tour thanks to her."  
  
He’d said it casually, like it was just any other offhand remark, but Julie sensed an undercurrent of hurt, like a low guitar chord nearly drowned out by other instruments. With all the physical peril they had been through because of Jessica Coburn—no, Kobane Shika—it would be easy to forget about the emotional and psychological trouncing she’d dealt Kotaro personally.  
  
Even if his relationship with her seemed shallow—the fact that she despised one of his most iconic quirks was yet another piece of evidence to support that theory—there was no way for anyone else to know exactly what was in Kotaro's heart. Julie had been his friend since they were kids and she knew that deep down he was a romantic, an idiot who still believed that love is magical. She also knew that he'd never had a girlfriend before Shika. He'd probably cared about her a lot, and believed that she cared about him too. To find out that she had just been using him for the two months they dated must have been devastating.  
  
Then a sharp feeling of sickness seized her as she suddenly remembered something Shika had told her during their confrontation. The words flowed back into Julie brain verbatim in Shika’s haughty, snotty tone: _"After all, you did break his heart before he came to America. Funny isn't it, Julie? How you set Kotaro up for me. You made him such an easy target."_  
  
The movement of the comb slowed as tears of guilt pricked at her eyes. No matter how unintended, her rejection had hurt him deeply, maybe enough to make him jump headlong into a relationship with a beautiful but duplicitous woman he’d only just met. She set the comb aside and wrapped both her arms around Kotaro’s chest, hugging him from behind.  
  
"I'm sorry," she cried into his hair, messing up the teasing she'd just done. "If I had known… If only I'd known…"  
  
Kotaro seemed stunned for a moment but then he laughed. "How could you have known what kind of person she really was, Julie? If anybody should have been suspicious it's me. You've got nothing to apologize for."  
  
He thought she meant: _If only I'd known what Jessica's true nature was_. But she really meant: _If only I'd known that you were confessing to me at the airport_. But how could she explain that to him now? It wouldn't make him feel any better to know that all this trouble might have been averted if he'd been less vague or she'd been less dense. Julie couldn't imagine what she would have said if she had known it was a confession anyway. Maybe she would have hurt him even worse.  
  
If he were to confess to her right now, however, she had a pretty good idea of how she'd respond.  
  
Her embrace tightened; she breathed in the sweet scent of shampoo on his hair and she didn't loosen her hold on him until someone knocked on the door and she had to let go to get up and answer it. When she opened the door, whoever knocked had vanished, leaving behind a room service trolley laden with goodies for them.  
  
"Our computer is here!" she announced, pulling the cart inside. In addition to the much-coveted laptop, there were three sets of clean clothing—causal fare that they could sleep in comfortably—and three platters topped with domed silver covers. "Looks like dinner is here, too."  
  
"Great, I'm starving," Kotaro said. He stood and joined Julie beside the trolley and for a moment their eyes connected and somehow she knew that he was thinking about the strange, spontaneous hug she’d delivered.  
  
"Should we wait for Akaba?" Julie asked, feeling suddenly self-conscious.  
  
"No need.” Akaba had just emerged from the bathroom, his wet red hair sticking to his forehead. His legs weren’t as long as Kotaro’s, but the one-size bathrobe still showed a scandalous amount of them and felt a small shudder of exhilaration at the sight before forcing her eyes elsewhere.  
  
The trio grabbed their plates and the laptop and settled in a row on the bed. Julie was in the middle, naturally, nestled between two barely clothed boys that she was finding it harder and harder to think of in strictly platonic terms. Eating commenced as they waited for the computer to boot and she tried to keep her eyes down on her plate.  
  
Dinner was grilled fish served with rice and an assortment of vegetables. And, as they soon discovered, it was all flavored with a certain not-so-secret ingredient.  
  
"Thish fish tashtes yike pimapple," Kotaro whined around a mouthful of food. He swallowed and took another bite. "The rice tastes like pineapple, too."  
  
Luckily, the computer screen lit up before he could complain further, but all three of them recoiled slightly when the desktop wallpaper loaded; it was a photo of Hiruma aiming a shotgun straight out at the audience with the words, _Don't forget, your ass belongs to me now, superimposed over it._  
  
"Er, you don't suppose it's just an empty threat," Kotaro muttered.  
  
Julie quickly maximized the web browser to cover it up. "Let's just not think about it. Now, where do we look first?" she asked.  
  
"How about starting with Daddy Long Legs' website," Akaba said. "Our bandmates might have said something about us even if nobody else has."  
  
She typed in the URL and sure enough, the main page of their website now displayed an open letter to fans in stark black type, in both Japanese and English.  
  
 _To the family, friends, and fans of Daddy Long Legs:_  
  
 _It is with deepest regret that we must announce the cancellation of our American tour due to unfortunate circumstances. This includes our scheduled appearance on the television show "Saturday Night Live." All tickets for our shows will, of course, be refunded promptly and in full. We are deeply sorry for this turn of events._  
  
"They cancelled it already?" Kotaro squawked, so riled he felt the need to claw at his hair. "What the hell? It's been one freaking day! One! And they cancelled everything! Even Saturday Night Live! Not smart guys! And what's with the 'unfortunate circumstances' crap. Isn't our disappearance a bit more tragic than that?"  
  
He paused to growl and Julie cut in using her most optimistic voice. "They probably aren't saying more because they don't want anyone to panic. But at least this means they know that you two are missing. I'm sure they are searching. And I'm sure they are worried about you. They wouldn't have cancelled so soon if they weren't worried."  
  
"I guess you're right," he said with a pout. "Okay, let's see if anyone else is missing us."  
  
With Julie at the helm, they checked several prominent entertainment news sites, but the only mentions of Daddy Long Legs referred to the cancellation as being for 'as yet unknown reasons.' Search engines yielded some music blogs, but all they could offer was vague speculation about poor ticket sales. It was still very early, of course. Almost everyone who knew something was wrong was still aboard that cruise ship.  
  
"So what are we going to do?" Kotaro asked.  
  
Akaba thought for a moment. “I suppose the first thing we should do is make it known that we are alive and well. We should email our families and the guys."  
  
A glum sigh came out of Kotaro and his chin drooped. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It won't reinstate our concerts though."  
  
"No," said Akaba. "But it's not as bad as the world thinking we're dead."  
  
"I don't know about that," said Kotaro. "If they think we're dead, they can't be mad at us for canceling our shows. They're going to hate us, aren't they?"  
  
"Of course not," Julie chimed. "Sure the fans will be disappointed, but when you explain what happened, they'll be so happy that you're alive it won't matter."  
  
He only seemed half comforted at best. "Yeah, yeah. I know. Hey, before sending out those emails I just want to check one more thing. Could you do a search for 'Jessica Coburn?'"  
  
Julie typed it in and the very first website to pop up wasn't what any of them were expecting. It was the official announcement page for the _Saturday Night Live End of Summer Special_.  
  
"What does it say, Akaba?" Kotaro asked impatiently. "I can't read it!"  
  
Akaba hesitated. His tongue flicked anxiously over his lips and his eyebrows twitched. Whatever he’d read was upsetting enough to cause hairline cracks to form in his perfect sub-zero cool.  
  
"What is it?" Julie asked fearfully. "Just spit it out."  
  
The voice he answered with had a strange, airy quality. "She took our spot."  
  
"What?" Julie and Kotaro gasped at once.  
  
"There has been a slight change to the list of performers that was announced yesterday," he read."Japanese rock band, Daddy Long Legs, is unable to appear, citing personal issues. In their place, another rising star will be the special musical guest, singer Jessica Coburn, who herself is a quarter Japanese. She says she is sorry her compatriots declined such an opportunity but is thrilled to take their place."  
  
Silence swallowed the room for a full minute as bitter emotions robbed the three of their voices. Jessica—or Shika, whatever her name was—had not only gotten away with letting them fall overboard from a cruise ship, but was actually benefiting from the tragedy. As far as she knew, the three castaways had drowned, and yet she still felt no qualms about cheerfully sniping their big television debut.  
  
"We… have to expose her," Julie said, choking slightly on her anger. "We have to let everyone know what really happened and that you guys are still alive and well, no thanks to her. The producers of that show need to know what kind of person she really is before they let her perform."  
  
"Yes," Akaba said. “We should contact the producers directly and tell them everything.”  
  
But Kotaro interjected with an adamant, "No." Akaba and Julie immediately turned their eyes to him. He had a steely, determined look on his face, his game face. "I don't want to go to the show's producers about this," he continued, in a tone befitting his resolute expression. "I want Jessica to go on that show."  
  
"Why?" Julie asked, flabbergasted.  
  
Kotaro's hard look curled into a smirk at the corners of his mouth. "Because I want as many people as possible to see it when I expose her lies."  
  
Julie blinked in disbelief. "You really intend to confront her on live national television?"  
  
“Not intend,” Kotaro said. “I’m going to do it.”  
  
"That's rash even for you," Akaba pointed out. "And how are you planning to actually pull it off? There are some pretty prominent celebrities slated to be on this special so security will be tight. They're not going to just let you rush the stage."  
  
"I've still got a week and a half to figure it out," Kotaro said. "With the three of us working together I'm sure we can think of something." His enthusiasm increased as he spoke, but Akaba brought it to a swift halt.  
  
"I never said I was going to go along with this," he said sternly. "And neither did Julie. I agree that Kobane needs to be dealt with, but not with this reckless and, frankly, stupid idea of yours. It's completely irrational. Wouldn't you agree, Jewels?"  
  
"It is crazy," she answered thoughtfully. Kotaro's smile wilted, but only until she added, "But I think we should do it. Kotaro, you can count me in."  
  
Now he was beaming at her. "Really? You'll help?"  
  
"In any way I can," she said confidently. "So that everyone will know that Kobane Shika is a wolf in sheep's clothing." Her voice got softer as she looked at Kotaro's warm grey eyes. "Nobody deserves to be used the way you were."  
  
Her heart was set on helping him from the moment he explained his objective. Reckless and impulsive as his plan sounded, she knew that he was serious. This was something he felt, as a man, he needed to do and she was going to support him all the way.  
  
But there was still one holdout.  
  
"So, are you in or are you out, Akaba?" Kotaro asked, eyes full of hope.  
  
Akaba wasn't even looking at him. He was looking at Julie. But he responded to the question nonetheless, eyes never leaving her face. "Why do you need me to help?"  
  
"Aw, come on, you know the answer to that," Kotaro said in a whiny tone. "And you know how much I hate to say it." He sighed and grudgingly said. "You're smarted than me."  
  
"Yes," Akaba said dispassionately. "So?"  
  
"So, you're like the brainy big brother of the group," Kotaro answered. "We need you."  
  
Julie had been starting to grow antsy under Akaba's concentrated gaze, but when Kotaro said the word brother, his features immediately smoothed and she couldn't help smiling at him. She knew that word had sealed the deal. He turned to Kotaro and said, "Alright, I'm in."  
  
Kotaro was grinning excitedly. "Smart! Let Operation: Bring Down the Wicked Witch commence!"

 


	11. Chapter 11

 

Track 11: Destination Unknown

  
  
For most of the evening the moon had been a gleaming silver coin hanging in the sky outside their window, but sometime after they’d turned out the lights to go to sleep, the clouds rolled in like a dark veil and now only enough light shone in to vaguely indicate objects in the room.  
  
Julie was still awake, listening to the rhythmic in and out breathing of Kotaro and Akaba, fast asleep on either side of her. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on her; she was the one who'd insisted it wouldn't be strange if the three of them shared the king-sized bed, and now she was the only one who couldn't sleep.  
  
Both of them were facing the center of the bed, so no matter which way she turned there was a gorgeous sleeping face pointed right at her. And so close. She was looking at Kotaro now, watching in fascination for when his eyebrows and his lips would twitch and wondering what he was dreaming about. The world of Kotaro's dreams must be pretty interesting, she thought.  
  
Behind her, Akaba's breath warmed her neck.  
  
They had only made baby steps towards forming a workable plan. The three of them agreed that they needed concrete evidence that Jessica had watched them go overboard and done absolutely nothing to help them. Akaba speculated that if authorities had seen anything incriminating through the security cameras, they would have acted on it and apprehended Jessica. So video evidence was out. Kotaro had assured them that he could charm a confession out of her, but Akaba and Julie had their doubts. One thing was for sure: they had to get to New York City before next Saturday.  
  
Julie's brain was finally growing sluggish, even though her heart was still excited. Her eyelids were growing heavy, even though she wanted to keep on watching Kotaro. But in the end, sleep won out.  
  
She dreamed she was adrift on a sea of pineapple juice with a giant metal lunchbox serving as her boat. Kotaro was draped over the side puking his guts out and Akaba was crouched in a corner, playing an invisible guitar as if the rest of the world didn't exist. Suddenly a tower of pale green loomed in front of their boat. It was the Statue of Liberty sprouting right up out of the ocean, and although she was far away, Julie could somehow make out the diminutive yet menacing sight of Jessica Coburn standing on the top of that great green head. She flashed a grin that was too evil even for Hiruma, and then she started belting out Kick Shock for the whole world to hear.  
  
It was at this point that Julie awoke with a small gasp. The memory of the dream dissolved like smoke into the dark bedroom, and with her mind cleared, she suddenly realized that her arms had wrapped around Kotaro's midsection while she slept. She could feel the steady rise and fall of his ribcage, his hot breath against the top of her head. Her face was just centimeters from his chest, so every time she inhaled she took in his warm, clean scent. He smelled wonderful.  
  
"Kotaro," she whispered, soft enough that it wouldn't wake him. Then she snuggled closer against him, letting the smell of him fill her lungs.  
  
"He's on your other side," he spoke in the wrong voice.  
  
Julie's eyes shot upwards and met Akaba's, dark without his trademark contact lenses. "A-Akaba…" she stuttered, too surprised to keep her voice to a whisper. "I… I thought… You're on the wrong side."  
  
"I got up to use the bathroom,” he said drawled softly. “I was still half asleep so I just crawled back into the closest spot. Kotaro must have switched sides to annoy me."  
  
"He wouldn't do that," she said. She chuckled nervously. "So, uh, how long have you been awake? I mean… in case it might give me a rough idea of how long I was holding you in my sleep."  
  
"You're _still_ holding me, you know," he said calmly.  
  
"Sorry!" she squeaked as she quickly disentangled herself. "I didn't do it on purpose, I can assure you. I was asleep."  
  
He looked at her with one of his enigmatic almost smiles. "Yes. Quite comfortably it seemed. Though there really isn't anything you need to apologize for. I would happily be your hug-pillow all night long."  
  
An unpleasantly pleasant heat rose in her chest. "That's really not necessary," she mumbled. "Thank you. But I'm just going to scoot back into the center where I belong. If Kotaro woke up and saw us…" Her voice trailed off.  
  
"What?" Akaba asked smoothly. "What do you think he would do?"  
  
"He'd be furious," she said. "He'd think you were trying to make a move on me."  
  
The corners of his lips curled up ever so slightly and his face moved in closer to hers. "And what if I _was_ trying to make a move on you? What then? You aren't his girlfriend after all."  
  
"St-stop it," she stammered, pushing him away with both hands. "Don't say stupid things. He'll wake up and hear you. He could be awake and listening right now for all we know." Instinct made her whip her head around to check on Kotaro and logic made her wonder why she hadn't done so earlier. But all that was on her other side was a wall of pillows underneath the comforter, carefully arranged to look like a sleeping person. "He's gone!" she gasped.  
  
Akaba propped himself up with one arm and looked over Julie's shoulder. "You're right. That guy must have some wicked stealth skills since he left without waking either of us."  
  
"Where could he have gone?" There was worry in her voice now. She knew Kotaro was impetuous, but he had no idea what kind of dangers could be lurking in a mansion owned by Hiruma Youichi. What could he possibly be looking for?  
  
The answer, of course, didn't matter. She sat up and kicked the covers off of her. "Come on, Akaba. We have to find your idiot brother before Hiruma does."  
  
Akaba sighed and hoisted his tired body upright. "Fuu~ You know I can't refuse when you use the b-word."  
  
"Of course," she said slyly. "That's why I used it." She'd just swung her legs off the side of the bed when the scream of an air horn made her whole body leap in the air. The assault on their ears was accompanied by a rapid, blinding flicker of the lights, on and off, over and over.  
  
"Wake up! Wake up, Fucking Spiders!" Hiruma trumpeted, following it up with another blast from the air horn. He settled the light switch in the on position and grinned his pointy grin at Julie and Akaba. "Sharing the same bed, I see. Getting nice and cozy?"  
  
"All three of us used the bed," Julie explained curtly. "To sleep in. Kotaro just…"  
  
"Ran off?" Hiruma offered. "Don't worry. I found him." He reached behind him into the hallway and dragged Kotaro in by his ear. The only reason he wasn't kicking and screaming was that Hiruma had him trussed up with rope like a wild animal, silver-grey duct tape sealing his mouth.  
  
"Kotaro!" Julie cried, hurrying to his side. "My god, Hiruma! What did you do to him?" Her hand reached for the tape over his mouth and Hiruma clicked his tongue.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."  
  
But she could hear Kotaro's angry voice trapped in his cheeks and had to set it free. Opting for the quick and sharp method, she ripped off the tape with one swift yank and a scream of pain immediately poured out.  
  
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Ouch!!! That really smarts!"  
  
Julie winced in empathy. "I'm so sorry Kotaro." She touched his mouth with her fingertips, delicately. "How bad did I hurt your lips?"  
  
"I can't tell," he said. "I think they're still stuck to the tape."  
  
Seeing as he wasn't too hurt to joke, she felt it was okay to let out an exasperated little groan. "What were you thinking wandering off like that?"  
  
"He wasn't thinking," Akaba answered flatly. "He never does."  
  
"Hey!" Kotaro snapped. He was about to throw a rude comeback at Akaba, but Hiruma cut in impatiently.  
  
"He was trying to steal the video footage of Fucking Blue Hair's striptease."  
  
Kotaro’s lower jaw jutted. "I was this close to getting it, too, but…"  
  
Hiruma yanked the rope around his body tighter and strangled off the end of the sentence. "He wasn't even on the right floor," he said deprecatingly. "In any case, it's time for you three to be on your way."  
  
"Already?" Julie asked, sleepy eyes darting to the clock on the bedside table and back. "It's four o'clock in the morning."  
  
"Then we're already running late," Hiruma growled. "I only need two couriers, though, so one of you is going to have to ride in one of the crates. But which one?" He scratched his chin, pretending he was really thinking about it even though the sadistic glare he was shooting at Kotaro made it quite clear that he had already made up his mind.

 

…

  
"Try to find a comfortable position and stay in it," Julie said helplessly, threading her fingers between the slats of a giant wooden crate. "It's only a ten hour flight." She saw his anxious grey eyes shining back at her and felt his fingers lace with hers and her heart ached for him. "I'm so sorry he singled you out, Kotaro. If I could switch places with you…"  
  
She had already asked Hiruma to let her ride in the crate but was soundly refused.  
  
Now they were settled in the hull of a massive cargo plane, Akaba and Julie in coveralls and caps bearing the King Mukuro logo, and Kotaro in a wooden crate half-filled with pineapples. As the last of the crates were being installed via forklift, Hiruma sauntered in to say whatever last words he had for them.  
  
"Well hello there, Fucking Spiders. Is everyone all comfy-cozy and ready to go?" He leaned down close to Kotaro's crate, aiming the gleeful question directly at him.  
  
"I still don't understand why I have to be in here," Kotaro grumbled. "Why can't I be a courier too? Nobody will care if there is an extra crewmember. And these pineapples are really sharp."  
  
"The reason is twofold," Hiruma stated with an intimation of delight at his own twisted logic. "Firstly, it's for insurance purposes that you are too thick to understand. And secondly, it's to teach you an important lesson about sneaking around other people's houses with intent to rob. Now, if there are no further questions, I'll get out of the way and let takeoff commence."  
  
There was a short pause followed by Kotaro asking, with a hint of embarrassment, "Uh, what about when I have to use the bathroom?"  
  
"Pineapples don't talk," Hiruma hissed. He gave the crate a swift kick that rattled its structure, and then turned and started to walk away.  
  
"Wait!" Julie shouted at him. "Where is this plane headed? What city?"  
  
He ignored her question and kept walking. "Don't you dare piss on my merchandise, Fucking Sideburns!" he called back. "Oh, and watch out for pineapple snakes."  
  
"P-pineapple snakes?" Kotaro squeaked.  
  
The plane's hatch closed with a mechanical groan, throwing the trio into darkness that was relieved only slightly by a single light bulb dangling from a metal beam in the ceiling. There was a harsh growl as the engine burst into life and soon they were moving, flying off to a location only Hiruma knew.  
  
Julie's fingers were still interlocked with Kotaro's. "Hang in there," she soothed. "He was probably lying about the snakes." She had to force herself to believe that to keep from freaking out. There was no doubt in her mind that the 'insurance purposes' Hiruma spoke of were made up and that he was only treating Kotaro this way to punish him for trying to steal back their collateral. Yes, Kotaro had brought this on himself with his idiotic impulsivity, but she just couldn't help feeling sympathy for him. He'd been trying to protect her dignity after all.  
  
Brave, stupid Kotaro.  
  
She stayed right there, as close to him as possible, and Akaba joined her, leaning his back against the crate. Nausea from the takeoff kept her from saying anything early on and both boys seemed to understand, telling her in gentle voices to breath slowly and deeply and reassuring her that it would get better as soon as the plane leveled off.  
  
And it did. Once they'd reached the proper altitude, the ride became smooth and her stomach settled enough for her to revel in their company. For hours, the three of them talked, not about how to confront Jessica, like they all knew they should, but about football and music and anything that might take Kotaro's mind off of the discomfort of being boxed in with dozens of prickly pineapples.  
  
After a while, Kotaro started to contribute less and less to the conversation until eventually the only sound he made was a gentle snoring. He had fallen asleep.  
  
"Fuu~ How can he sleep in there?" Akaba asked. "He's on a bed of needle-sharp fruit."  
  
"Well he was up all night snooping around," Julie offered. "That would make anyone tired."  
  
"Yeah," he said. "But only Kotaro would do it."  
  
Julie chuckled softly. With Kotaro fast asleep, she felt suddenly embarrassed being so close to Akaba after what happened in the wee small hours of that morning. It was awkward enough that she had been holding him in her sleep, but the way he teased her about it was mortifying. And strange; that wasn't the sort of things that Akaba would normally say. But then, how well did she really know Akaba Hayato?  
  
Unexpectedly, he spoke. "Have you decided yet?"  
  
She looked at him, blinking in surprise. "Decided what?"  
  
"Whether or not to pursue the path that would make you and Kotaro more than just friends."  
  
"Oh." Her mouth formed a perfect little circle. They had talked about this when they were still in Hawaii, only a week ago, though it seemed much longer because so much had happened since the. She and Kotaro had definitely grown closer: played the secret game from their childhood, slept under the stars together, swam naked. And Jessica was no longer her rival, though she wasn't quite out of their lives yet.  
  
"I think… I really like him," she admitted, averting her eyes downward, shyly. "But… I'm not going to try to pursue that path until he gets whatever closure he needs with Jessica. It would be selfish of me to make him think about a relationship with me when he still has things he needs to work out for himself."  
  
When she looked up again, Akaba was wearing a tiny smile. "That sounds like a good plan. Just don't become so focused on that path that you close off all others."  
  
It was yet another enigmatic comment, but she tried not to think too much of it. They still had several hours left to be stuck on the plane and if she tried to dissect everything Akaba said she would drive herself crazy. So she decided to close her eyes and join Kotaro in the world of slumber.  
  
She didn't wake up until the plane shuddered as it began to descend. "Whoa!" she gasped, limbs still clumsy as she tried to pull herself up from the floor where she was curled. "I take it we're about to land?"  
  
"Yep," Kotaro's voice chirped from inside his box. You slept through the entire rest of the flight."  
  
"Says the guy who woke just ten minutes ago," Akaba dryly commented. "Now everybody brace yourself because I think it's going to be a bumpy landing."  
  
"And not a moment too soon," said Kotaro. "I have to pee like you wouldn't believe."  
  
All of the sudden the shudder became a shake and then a rumble. Julie felt like her stomach was a can of paint in one of those mixing machines at the hardware store, contents churning into a homogenous slurry. She grabbed hold of Kotaro's crate to try to hold her body steady, but it wasn't enough. She was sure she was going to spew when the plane bounced violently. But then it rolled smoothly. They'd made it. And miraculously she'd managed not to vomit.  
  
The light that poured in when the rear hatch opened was pale orange, an early evening sky. Outside was a nondescript loading dock where men were waiting to unload the merchandise. Before doing anything else, Julie rushed out and found a crowbar amongst their tools and rushed back to pry open Kotaro's cage. The wood splintered apart with a crack and a very disheveled, cut, and scraped up Kotaro staggered out.  
  
If the loading dock crew found anything unusual about a Japanese boy emerging from a crate of pineapples, none of them let it show. They all just went about doing their jobs as if the three of them weren't even there. It was all probably de rigueur for employees of Hiruma.  
  
"Kotaro!" Julie exclaimed, flinging her arms around him in a tight hug—mindful of his painful-looking scratches, of course. "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'll be better after we find a bathroom," he answered. "Um… on that note, you might not want to squeeze me so tight." She loosened her hold immediately and he pulled out his comb for a quick preening. "That was one hell of an uncomfortable flight. You know, I'm starting to think that Hiruma isn't quite right in the head."  
  
Julie gaped in bafflement. "Starting to?"  
  
"His musical sense is definitely offbeat," Akaba mused, scratching his chin. "It appears that the transfer of goods is already being taken care of. Nobody even seems to notice us. Fuu~ I think our jobs here are done."  
  
"Finally," Kotaro huffed. "Now let's find out where the heck we are."  
  
The loading deck was in the back of a single-story brick building, and as they walked away from it and looked around, it was quite obvious that they weren't in a big city. The buildings here—and there weren't all that many—were simple, old-fashioned, and shabby. The one where they'd delivered the pineapples was the largest and appeared to be some sort of factory. There were a few little shops—a convenience store, and a gas station nearby—and a cracked black street that stretched over the flat terrain all the way to the horizon.  
  
"So I guess we didn't land in Los Angeles or San Diego," Kotaro said. "This place is ultra-rural. It's the middle of freaking nowhere."  
  
"What do you think the odds are of us meeting somebody who speaks Japanese here?" Julie asked anxiously.  
  
"I can speak enough English to ask someone where we are," Akaba said calmly. "Let's not panic." The determined way in which he spoke gave Julie the impression that, even now, he was still trying to make up for his moment of panic when he’d jumped off the cruise ship. "Come on guys," he said. "Let's go into that convenience store. There will be someone inside and we can get out of the heat."  
  
It was early evening but the sun had not yet set and it inexplicably seemed to blaze hotter the lower in the sky it sank.  
  
"Can you ask whoever runs the store if they have a toilet?" Kotaro asked, shifting from foot to foot in a classic 'gotta go' dance.  
  
Since both she and Akaba had access to facilities on the plane, Julie's heart went out to him. She hooked an arm around Kotaro's elbow and hurried with him towards the store.  
  
While Akaba had a conversation she barely understood with the clerk and Kotaro used the bathroom, Julie covetously eyed the shelves of tasty-looking American snack foods. Even if she couldn't read the descriptions on the packages, the pictures were enough to make her mouth water and to make her desperately wish that they had some money. They were completely broke, and as much as she wanted to feel confident, she was having serious doubts about them making it to New York City with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a Get Smart lunchbox filled with treasures whose only value was sentimental.  
  
Kotaro emerged from the bathroom looking very relieved and joined her in eye-feasting on chips and candies and cookies they couldn't afford. "Which one do you think looks the tastiest?" he asked her.  
  
This was something she had already been considering in her head before he arrived and it only took a few seconds for her to deliberate and point out a package of two round cupcakes covered in marshmallow and pink-dyed coconut flakes. "They just look so soft and tasty."  
  
"I think they look like boobs," he said, making a face. "I'd go for something salty and crunchy, like those green onion chips." His stomach gurgled loudly and Julie's echoed it. Talking about food wasn't exactly helping. "Hey, if we asked him to, do you think Akaba could convince the clerk to give us something for free?"  
  
Julie glanced over to where their friend was giving a polite bow to the tired-looking man behind the counter. "Looks like he's already finished talking," she said. "Besides, most stores aren't real keen on giving handouts."  
  
Akaba walked over with an unreadable expression on his face, making it impossible to predict what he was about to tell them. "We're in New Mexico," he said.  
  
"Mexico?" Kotaro stammered. "I thought we were in America!"  
  
Julie let out a groan and dragged her hand down her face. "New Mexico, Kotaro. It's one of the United States. You know, you're lucky you're so cute."  
  
"I forgot there was a New Mexico," he said, as if it were a common mistake. "But, uh, did you really mean it about thinking I’m cute?” Julie rolled her eyes to indicate that this wasn’t the right moment and Kotaro quickly got back on topic. “Great, so we're in New Mexico. Uh… what exactly does that mean?"  
  
"It means we're a long way from New York City," Akaba answered, letting just a hint of a sigh into his voice. "In fact, according to this gentleman I have just spoken to, we're a long way from any means to get to New York City. The closest town with a bus station is over fifty miles away."  
  
"Fifty doesn't sound so bad," Kotaro said optimistically. "We can find a way to travel fifty miles. That's only like thirty kilometers, right?"  
  
"You're converting backwards," Akaba informed. "It's actually over eighty kilometers."  
  
Julie saw it on Kotaro's face immediately, his enthusiasm plunging down to the same low as hers. They were tired and hungry and he was covered in cuts and scratches. Even if it were only a thirty-kilometer trek they wouldn't be able to walk it. Eighty was unthinkable. And now the store clerk was shooting them a suspicious 'buy-something-or-get-out' look that needed no translation.  
  
"Since we've got no money we should probably go outside," she said. "Get out of the way of paying customers."  
  
Kotaro snorted. "What paying customers? Besides the loading dock guys and the old man who works here we haven't seen a single other person. This is a ghost town. Is it even a town? There aren't any houses. Maybe the plane crashed into the ocean and we died and this is Hell. Think about it. The isolation? The heat? The tantalizing food we can't eat?"  
  
He was getting worked up so Julie rubbed his back soothingly. "We aren't in Hell," she said gently. "Hell wouldn't let you in with that angel voice of yours. Come on, let's go sit outside."  
  
She kept her physical contact with him as they walked out the door, the still potent heat hitting them like a wall, and found a dusty concrete curb to sit on. Akaba sat down on her other side.  
  
"This is so not smart," Kotaro muttered as Julie's hand moved in soft figure eights between his shoulder blades. "Not smart at all. Hiruma knew where this plane was going and he put us onboard anyways. He sent us into a wasteland and he's going to make us pay for it."  
  
Julie didn't even know what to say to him.  
  
"And the worst thing about all of this," Kotaro continued, "is that stupid Jessica Coburn is going to perform on Saturday Night Live when it should be Daddy Long Legs. There's no way we can make it to New York in time."  
  
For some reason, Julie expected Akaba to chime in with a blunt statement about how difficult the road ahead would be and propose the best data-supported course of action. But he didn't say a word.  
  
"So where are we going to sleep tonight?" Kotaro asked glumly. "I guess the ground is better than a crate of pineapples."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
A foreign voice speaking a familiar language drew the three downcast faces back up. Standing there in front of them was a young girl, around fourteen or fifteen, in denim overalls and a tank top, talking to them in fluent Japanese.  
  
"You three seem lost," she said. "Do you need some help?"  
  
At first none of the three said anything, too stunned at hearing this girl speaking in their native tongue. After about a minute, Julie was first to find her voice.  
  
"Hello. You… speak Japanese?"  
  
"That's right," the girl said with a chipper smile. She was cute, with a long, honey brown braid trailing down her back, hazel eyes, and a smattering of light freckles across the bridge of her nose. "Oh, sorry," she said. "I probably should have introduced myself first. I'm Molly Elizabeth Sullivan, fourteen years old. Pleasure to meet you." Then she extended a hand for shaking; despite using the Japanese language, her body language was very straightforward and American.  
  
Julie shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Julie Sawai. This is Kotaro Sasaki to my left and Hayato Akaba to my right. Do you live here in this town?"  
  
Molly let out a laugh. "This little outpost can't really be called a town. No, I just came here with my big brother to pick up an order of pineapple salsa from the factory. Strange place to set up business if you ask me, but everyone is crazy about the stuff back on our ranch so we get it right from the source. Oh yeah, we live on a ranch in the town fifty miles east of here."  
  
She talked a lot, and quickly, which made Julie wonder if she'd learned Japanese from teenage girls like her sister, Harumi. But she didn't mind. Molly was friendly and energetic and, quite possibly, their savior. They were in America now and it was time to be bold.  
  
"Pardon me, Miss Sullivan," she said. "I hope I'm not overstepping any bounds here, but would you possibly be able to give me and my friends a ride to your hometown?"  
  
"Oh, it's just Molly," the girl chirped. "Of course we'll give you a lift. That is, as long as you folks don't mind riding in the back of a pickup truck."  
  
A cheery smile came onto Julie's face. "We don't mind at all. In fact, we'd be eternally grateful." She stood up and the boys did the same, expressing their thanks with bows.  
  
Molly looked closely at Kotaro and then at Akaba, and suddenly a look of epiphany lit her face like two candles flickering behind her amber eyes. "Now I know why your names sounded so familiar. You're the two guys from Daddy Long Legs who disappeared on their cruise ship. Your song is on an iPod commercial, right?"  
  
Julie's stomach clenched. She'd forgotten that they were trying to keep a low profile and used their real names—though to be fair, they hadn't done a thing to disguise themselves.  
  
Kotaro, however, seemed elated at the identification, as if he had forgotten that he was famous. And maybe he had. "That's right!" he proudly declared. "We are big rock stars! Oh wait! But you can't tell anyone. Crap! Everyone in town is going to recognize us, aren't they?"  
  
"I don't think you have much to worry about in our town," Molly chuckled. "Outside of myself, and maybe my brother, nobody within a hundred-mile radius knows a thing about your music. If it isn't classic rock, they don't listen to it."  
  
"You won't tell anyone who we are, then, will you?" Akaba asked politely.  
  
"Of course not," she replied. "And like I said, it wouldn't mean a thing to them anyways."  
  
Now that everything was in order, she led them to a mud splattered blue pickup truck where a young man about their age was hoisting a large box into the back. Molly addressed him and started talking to him in English. At least, it started out as talking, but it rapidly became an argument, presumably about her unilateral decision to pick up three Japanese hitchhikers.  
  
In between barks of English, Molly's brother shot a mistrustful glare in their direction, aiming it first at Kotaro, next Akaba. But when his eyes met Julie's, his face immediately smoothed into charmed smile.  
  
"Well hello there," he greeted in Japanese. "What's a beautiful young lady like you doing in a place like this?"  
  
"It's a long story," she answered, feeling strangely like a steak in front of a coyote. "It would really mean a lot to us if you gave us a ride though. We'd pay you if we could, but…"  
  
"No, no, no," he clucked. "I wouldn't dare ask for anything in return. It's a matter of human courtesy. Roy Sullivan, at your service."  
  
At this point, he took Julie's small hand delicately in his own and pressed a chivalrous kiss to her knuckles. Julie could hear the air hissing angrily out of Kotaro's nostrils.  
  
With Roy behind the wheel, Molly joined the trio in the back and they explained to her the strange series of events that had brought them to New Mexico—omitting some details such as naked swimming and projectile vomiting. They told her about how they had to get to New York City. She in turn told them about the eight years her family had lived in Japan because her parents worked at a military base there, about how she loved Japan and missed it greatly.  
  
The sunset was the most beautiful that Julie had ever seen; orange and red and pink and purple enrobed the sky like layers of gossamer. By the time the last sliver of sun had disappeared below the horizon, thousands of stars had emerged, scattered like pearls on black velvet. It was a sight unlike any other she had ever taken in and the desert air felt so wonderful as they whipped through it.  
  
No less than six times during the hour-long drive, Kotaro glowered viciously through the truck's rear window at their driver. He clearly didn't like the guy, despite barely knowing him. It probably didn't help matters that Roy was quite handsome.  
  
Eventually, empty plains gave way to the first signs of civilization: power lines and gas stations and buildings here and there, growing denser as they drove in deeper. It looked like a small town, the type where nobody bats an eye at four kids riding in a truck bed, but there was life in it.  
  
The truck turned a sharp corner and the passengers had to brace themselves. Julie thought nothing of it, but Molly looked surprised and confused. "Where the heck is he going?" she asked, freckly nose crinkled. "This isn't the way to the ranch."  
  
They swerved into a parking lot where Roy stopped the truck and turned off the engine. Before he even climbed out the door, his little sister was standing up and had her hands on her hips. And so, Julie, Kotaro, and Akaba became witnesses to yet another sibling squabble unfolding in English.  
  
"What are they fighting about now?" Kotaro asked Akaba in a hushed voice.  
  
Akaba just held a finger over his lips and hissed a "Shhh" behind it so he could listen. Then they heard the unmistakable word 'football' and Julie saw both boys' eyes widen excitedly.  
  
When the arguing seemed to be over, Molly turned to them and sighed. "Sorry, guys. My idiot brother can't manage his time so he didn't leave enough to drop us off before his football game with his old high school chums. I'm not old enough to drive, so I guess we have to stick around until it's over. I'm so sorry."  
  
"It's okay," Julie said. "The truth is, we kind of like American football. Kin of a lot, actually. Isn't that right, guys?"  
  
But Akaba and Kotaro weren't paying any attention to her. Both of them were leaning over the wall of the truck bed, watching Roy and his friends gather and theorizing about what position each guy played, what his strengths might be, and what they might do to combat it. It was ridiculously obvious how much they still loved the game.  
  
"Dammit!" Roy bellowed suddenly, an expletive that easily translated into any language. He spun around and slapped his hands down on the edge of the truck and let out a grunt of utter defeat.  
  
"What's wrong?" Julie asked instinctively.  
  
He looked up at her and, as upset as he clearly was, still managed to aim a charming little smirk at her that made Kotaro growl. "A couple of guys didn't show," he explained in a heavy voice. "If I don't find two more players, we automatically forfeit to those jerks from Breakwater."  
  
Molly loosed a haughty laugh. "Oh no. So sad. Can't play. I guess we'll have to just take our guests back to the ranch and get them settled for the night."  
  
"Who said they're staying at the ranch?" Roy snarled. "No way we're letting two strange men sleep in our home." Interestingly, he didn't voice any objection to Julie shacking up with them.  
  
"They've got nowhere else to stay," Molly pleaded. "And besides, they're… they're my friends."  
  
"If you let us stay with you, we'll fill the empty positions on your team!" Kotaro blurted out the words as if he was physically incapable of holding them back anymore.  
  
Roy's eyebrows twisted skeptically. "Do you two really know the rules to American football?"  
  
"We know the basics," Akaba said coolly. "But if you don't trust us, I can tweak the deal a bit. You'll only put us up for the night if your team wins. What do you say?"

 


	12. Chapter 12

 

Track 12: Take On Me

  
  
They were seven for dinner that night, four Sullivans and three Bando alumni, seated around a weathered wooden picnic table outside beneath a ceiling of stars. The three young men wore topcoats of mud and sweat, half-dried by the arid night air, but nobody seemed to care. Tonight’s meal was grilled steak, roasted potatoes, and garden salad. Glasses of sweet tea clunking with ice sweated at each place setting. The entire scene had a very cliched, prototypically American quality to it, yet nothing about it felt forced or fake.  
  
“You shoulda seen it, Dad!” Roy bellowed across the table. “These two guys opened up a family-sized can of whoop-ass on those Breakwater punks.” He speared a large chunk of potato with his fork and shoved it into his mouth then gave Akaba, who was sitting to his left, a hefty smack on the shoulder as he merrily chewed. Roy was eighteen—he’d be college-bound in just a few weeks—and completely devoted to football. That devotion had nurtured prodigious skill as a linebacker, which he’d demonstrated in full tonight, but also a healthy appreciation for football talent when he saw it. The two Japanese substitute players still had him glowing long after the game was over.  
  
“We’re glad to have helped,” Akaba said, effortlessly polite. “Getting to play football with you was a pleasure in itself, but earning a place at your family’s dinner table is a true honor. Your hospitality means more to us than I can adequately express.” He pierced a cherry tomato on his fork and ate it elegantly, savoring with closed eyes.  
  
“Such lovely manners,” said Mrs. Sullivan, an older version of Molly with chestnut hair and laugh lines around her eyes.  
  
Unfortunately, her charmed observation could not be applied to Kotaro, who was gracelessly hacking at the enormous slab of steak on his plate, dividing it into chunks far too big to for any human mouth to eat with decorum. Sighing, Julie took the utensils from his hands and began cutting the meat into more manageable pieces for him and he beamed at her without a trace of insult at being babied. It was the football effect.  
  
“He’s right,” she said, addressing their hosts though her eyes were still on Kotaro’s face as if magnetically drawn to his smile. “We really can’t thank you enough for letting us stay here at your ranch.”  
  
“Are you kidding?” Roy interjected. “Akaba and Sasaki are the reason we won by a forty-point margin. You guys are guests of honor as far as I’m concerned. Besides, we’ve got plenty of spare rooms.”  
  
“And I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the third member of their party is a beautiful girl,” Molly said, shooting her brother a coy grin that made him rub the back of his neck and stare down at his plate awkwardly.  
  
Julie’s cheeks flushed and she could sense Kotaro silently bristling next to her so she quickly steered the conversation back to the calmer seas of the football game. “I don’t know if they told you this already, but these two were on the same football team in high school. Now go to different colleges so tonight was the first time they’ve played together in over a year.”  
  
“Really?” Roy asked, wide-eyed and sounding mildly stunned. “You two were so in sync I would have sworn you guys played together every day. That’s some kind of crazy football chemistry you’ve got.”  
  
Football chemistry. Julie liked that term. Was there any better way to describe how well Kotaro and Akaba had performed together tonight? Remembering the game, her heart sped up a beat or two or ten. She had watched it all from the bench, almost like she was a team manager again, only now she had no other responsibility except to watch her boys, together on the field again. And, just as Roy said, they were nothing short of amazing.  
  
Akaba had barreled down American boys twice his size, determining their gravitational shifts and striking swiftly at just the right moment to make them topple like bowling pins. He’d earned a total of four touchdowns for Roy’s team. Sure he was acting cool about it now—in typical Akaba fashion—but Julie could see it in his eyes, shining through his red contact lenses, that something in him that had been sleeping for the past two months had reawakened. The change was subtle, but it was there.  
  
Kotaro, on the other hand, was in full-out swagger mode, recounting past tales of Bando glory and seemingly impossible kicks that he’d executed perfectly. Julie couldn’t even find his boasting obnoxious—because it was true, of course, but also because he was radiating so much joy that it was impossible to look at him without returning his grin. Somehow, she had become so caught up in his new rock star persona that she’d forgotten just how beautiful he was on a football field. But tonight’s game brought it all back to her. Each time his eyes locked onto the goal posts and narrowed down to intense smoke grey slivers she knew something incredible was about to happen. And then, while she was holding her breath in anticipation, he kicked the ball and it flew through the uprights like a homing missile. He’d scored a total fifteen points with his kicks, tonight, not including the extra points after touchdowns.  
  
That Kotaro, with his golden voice and glorious legs, was more blessed than he even realized. At least that’s what Julie thought. But then, there was always the distinct possibility that she was hopelessly biased on this matter.  
  
“Isn’t this great?” Molly chirped, smiling as widely as Julie and Kotaro but for apparently different reasons. “It’s so nice for us all to be speaking Japanese together again. It reminds me of when we were living in Tokyo. That was my favorite time ever.”  
  
“It really is fortunate that we met you,” Akaba commented. “To find such a kind family who all speak Japanese in such an unexpected location seems almost too good to be coincidence. Perhaps our previous host was not as careless in his plotting as we assumed.”  
  
“Aw, don’t ruin perfectly good football talk by bringing up Hiruma,” Kotaro groaned.  
  
Roy and Molly’s father, an easygoing man whose blond hair was starting to go ashy with age, cocked his head curiously at the mention of that name. “Did you say _Hiruma_? I remember there was a strange kid with that name who used to sneak onto the base to gamble on the guys’ football games. I wonder if he could have been related to your Hiruma. Is it a very common name?”  
  
“Oh, you mean that gangly boy with the pointed ears and foul mouth?” Mrs. Sullivan asked before his query could be answered.  
  
Akaba, Kotaro, and Julie all responded immediately and in unison but with very little enthusiasm. “That’s him.”  
  
After a few minutes of silent chewing to push their ordeal with that guy to the back of their minds, conversation resumed. The trio explained how they needed to get to New York City by next Saturday and the Sullivan’s listened patiently. They were good and honest people, Julie could tell after only a few hours in their company, the kind of people you could trust. Even Roy had reversed his opinion of their potential houseguests upon witnessing Kotaro’s first field goal. Of course, being a trustworthy family did not mean that they wouldn’t think the trio or their scheme was completely deranged.  
  
“I know you all must be thinking that we’re nuts about now,” Julie said in what she felt was her sanest voice. “Secretly traveling across a foreign country while missing and presumed dead in order to confront an ex-lover on live national television is definitely not something we do on a regular basis.”  
  
“Actually, this is our first time,” Akaba added. “And hopefully last.”  
  
Then Kotaro brought the whole story to its main purpose. “So I guess what we need to know is, what’s the fastest way for three young people with limited English to earn some cash in this town? We’re willing to work hard. We’ll do anything.”  
  
Mr. Sullivan rubbed his stubbled jawline thoughtfully with his knuckles. “Well, we can always use extra hands here on the ranch. It’s tough work, but it’s rewarding, and we’d pay you.”  
  
“We’d love to help out on the ranch,” Akaba said. “We will work, but it wouldn’t feel right to accept money from you in addition to room and board.”  
  
“Hey wait a minute,” Kotaro snapped. “If the man wants to give us a few extra bucks for pitching in, who are we to stop him? Right, Julie?”  
  
“I dunno…” There was validity to both their points of view, but she hated being put on the spot like this, forced to side with one of them or the other. Kotaro was looking at her with goading intensity while Akaba wore an almost stern expression. “I think…” She spoke slowly, hoping it would buy her time to decide her position, but thankfully Molly inserted her voice into the conversation and saved her before she had to.  
  
“Why don’t you guys just enter the countywide talent contest?” Molly casually said. “It’s this Saturday. First place prize is two thousand dollars, and judging from how you sounded on that iPod commercial, you actually have a pretty good chance of winning it. I’m sure my brother will let Akaba use his guitar.”  
  
“Talent contest?” Julie and Kotaro chimed in unison. This bit of information was much more interesting than Molly’s nonchalant tone gave it credit for.  
  
Kotaro was suddenly as adrenalized as when he’d been talking about football. “That’s it! That’s our ticket! Two thousand dollars would get us to New York City easily!” He paused and a brief look of doubt ghosted over his features. “Uh, right, Akaba?”  
  
“Yes,” Akaba replied coolly. His fingers were tented in front of him, an indication of serious deliberation. “But I think you and Miss Molly are overestimating our odds of winning. We are Japanese performing artists with a niche fanbase in the United States. Our sound might not play to rural New Mexico.”  
  
“Then we’ll cover an American song,” Kotaro said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “My spoken English might not be that great, but I do know a lot of songs.”  
  
Akaba gave a small nod; acknowledgment, not agreement. “Fair enough. There is also the fact that we are down two band members.”  
  
“Well, no offense to Sakai and that other guy,” Kotaro said with a note of cockiness, “but I always got the impression that you and me are the most talented members of Daddy Long Legs.”  
  
Julie wasn’t going to argue against that.  
  
And apparently neither was Akaba. “That’s probably true,” he said. “But you and I have never performed as a duo before.”  
  
“How much different could it be?” Kotaro was still utterly convinced of their inevitable victory, adopting a confident pose with hands behind his head as he brushed off Akaba’s concerns. “I’ll sing, you’ll play guitar, the crowd will go nuts, and we’ll walk away with two thousand dollars. Totally smart. What could possibly go wrong?”  
  
The look on Akaba’s face was deadpan. “Did you seriously just say that line? You do realize that any time someone says that in a book or movie or TV show or comic, everything winds up going wrong, right?”  
  
Kotaro opened his mouth to speak, but whatever snappy retort he was hoping to deliver was stillborn and he just gaped like a fish.  
  
Julie took that as her cue to intervene. “Okay, _time_ ,” she said, crossing her hands in the signal for time out. “While you two have addressed some very important issues about performing in this talent contest, I think you may have overlooked a few more pressing concerns. We don’t even know if you guys are eligible to compete. Miss Molly said it’s countywide, so you might need to be a resident. And the contest is on Saturday so there is a good chance it’s too late to enter.”  
  
Both boys stared at her; Kotaro looked deflated, Akaba contemplative. All three pairs of eyes quickly shifted to the youngest member of their host family.  
  
Molly’s face showed no worry. “I only called it countywide because people enter from all over the county. No official identification is needed, in fact, a lot of people use stage names.” A tiny crease formed between her eyebrows and her lips puckered. “Not sure if it’s too late to enter, though. Usually they keep registration open pretty late as long as there are slots available. Roy can take you boys down to the community center tomorrow morning to see if they can squeeze you in.”  
  
“Don’t just volunteer me for things.” Roy frowned when he said it but his subsequent words indicated that he was still in on the plan. “We’ll have to leave early since the community center is over an hour away. Oh!” A look of unpleasant epiphany crossed his face. “There’s also the one hundred dollar registration fee. I forgot about that.”  
  
It was only when she felt her stomach drop to her feet in disappointment that Julie realized she’d actually started to get her hopes up for this talent contest plan.  
  
“We can give them that much,” Molly insisted. “A hundred dollars is barely anything.”  
  
“Well I don’t mind,” said Mr. Sullivan. “I believe you kids’ word that you will work hard around here. If you’re willing to accept getting a bit of cash in exchange, it’s yours.”  
  
Akaba let out a small sigh. “Fuu~ Well, I’d said that we couldn’t accept anything more than room and board from you, but I guess we don’t really have any other choice but...”  
  
“I’m sorry but we can’t take your money.” Kotaro’s interruption demanded everyone’s attention; he’d shot up out of his seat and slapped his hands down on the table in front of him.  
  
“Kotaro,” Akaba began, but was immediately cut off.  
  
“We can’t _take_ your money,” Kotaro repeated with adjusted emphasis. “But we will borrow one hundred dollars for the registration fee and pay it back from our winnings. Me and Akaba are going to take first place in that talent contest. You can count on it.”

 

...

  
Julie, Kotaro, and Akaba started making good on their promise of labor as soon as dinner was over by clearing the table and washing the dishes. Afterwards, Molly treated them to an impromptu tour of the Sullivan Ranch as she led them to their accommodations.  
  
It was a small ranch, according to their young guide, though Julie never would have made that assessment based on her own observations. The house was single-story but it had enough rooms to lodge thirty guests in addition to the ranch staff and the Sullivan family. There were also a restaurant-sized kitchen, an enormous dining hall, and an even bigger events hall. Most impressive of all, however, was an elaborate swimming pool—complete with a simulated waterfall, tubular slide, and jacuzzi—nestled into the center of the U-shaped building. And this was just the residential portion of the Sullivan Ranch; Molly promised to show them the stables, pastures, orchard and pond in the light of day tomorrow.  
  
The tour ended in front of one of the guest room doors. “You boys’ll be staying here,” Molly said. “Hope you don’t mind sharing a room. But, hey, at least you get your own beds. Sawai, you will be in the single-occupancy next door. Sound good?”  
  
“Yeah. That sounds great.” Julie heard a note of surprise in her own voice even though the emotion hadn’t registered in her brain. “Are you sure you can waste two rooms on us? I mean, I would be totally fine sleeping with the boys.”  
  
“Oh, I see,” Molly said, rubbing her chin. She had that same sly look on her face that she’d flashed at her older brother over the dinner table and her tone was fittingly suggestive. “Since we don’t have guests booked into either room it really isn’t a waste. But if you really want to shack up with your two hot guy friends, as a fellow woman, I completely understand.”  
  
The implications hit Julie like a splash of cold water and she was immediately mortified that she hadn’t considered them before she’d spoken. “That’s not...!” she stammered. “My own room is fine! Thank you.” Hot-faced and chagrined, she forgot American etiquette and bowed as she said thanks, earning a muffled chuckle from Kotaro.  
  
Or at least she thought it was from Kotaro; when she straightened up, she saw it was Akaba who was shielding a smile with his hand.  
  
Thankfully, a hot shower was all it took to put that moment of awkwardness off Julie’s mind. Compared to some of the other incidents that had occurred during this trip—her drinking binge, skinny dipping on camera, and sleep-groping Akaba, to name a few—inadvertently giving the impression that she wanted a threesome with her two male companions under someone else’s roof was really quite minor on the humiliation scale.  
  
Clean but tired and ready to put another long, bizarre day behind her, she changed into a borrowed pair of pajamas and pulled back the quilt covering the bed. Both the bed and the room were smaller than what the three of them had shared at Hiruma’s mansion, but here she got it all to herself. She stretched out and lay spread-eagle on the bed, just because she could. After a few minutes, however, she found herself feeling strangely lonesome. The silence was deafening.  
  
 _I hope those two are still getting along okay_ , she thought, imagination drifting through the wall to the room where Kotaro and Akaba were probably still awake. She pondered whether or not to go knock on their door and say goodnight. She wanted to, craved one last eyeful of Kotaro’s face to take into her dreams, but ultimately decided that if there was any chance they were asleep already she didn’t want to wake them. They did have to be up early tomorrow after all.  
  
Just as she was reaching for the chain to switch off the lamp next to her bed, there was a knock on the door. “It’s me,” Kotaro’s voice said from the other side. He knew he didn’t need to identify himself by name.  
  
Julie sprang upright, her heart thumping a bit more excitedly than she’d like, and hurried to let him in. Once he was inside the room and the door closed behind him, her eyes gave him a quick toes-to-head scan. “Roy’s?” she asked, referring to the red gym shorts and plain white t-shirt he was wearing.  
  
“Yup.” He nodded towards her bubblegum-pink shorts and camisole ensemble. “Molly’s?”  
  
“Yeah.” She was suddenly very aware of how short the ruffly little shorts were and tried to tug them lower on her thighs, which only pulled down the waistband and exposed her bellybutton. “They’re a bit small. So, what brings you to my room at this late hour?”  
  
His eyes lingered on her bare legs for just a few seconds before he blinked and shook his head, as if coming to his senses, and smiled to her face. “Saying goodnight to you, what else?”  
  
She smiled back softly. “Of course. Wanna sit?”  
  
“Thanks.”  He walked to the bed and sank down on its edge, closed his eyes and tilted back his head. “Man, what a day.”  
  
“You said it,” she replied, sitting down next to him, hip to hip. “From Hiruma to pineapples to football to southwestern ranch to talent contest plans.” She paused and looked up at him, still holding his pose. “Your kicks were amazing, by the way. But you already knew that.”  
  
His face dropped back down to meet her gaze with an uncharacteristically gentle smile. “I did. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love hearing it from you, Julie. For some reason, and I can’t really explain why, your opinion always matters most to me.” He went quiet for a moment and let a trace of uncertainty shine through his contented features. “So do you really think we stand any chance of winning that talent contest?”  
  
This was a rare phenomenon, Kotaro actually expressing insecurity instead of sublimating it into a disastrous freak-out. Even though he was only revealing the smallest glimpse of this side of himself, Julie found it undeniably and irresistibly cute. The uncommon nature of this occurrence, though, meant that she had no standard procedures in place to reassure him, so she did the only thing she could think of, reaching out and taking both of his hands in hers. “I have no idea what the competition will be like, but you and Akaba are the two most talented people I know and I believe in you.”  
  
“You mean it?” he asked, as eagerly as a five-year old who’s been promised ice cream. “But I’m slightly more talented than Akaba, right?”  
  
As was so often the case when dealing with Kotaro, Julie had to roll her eyes. “Does it always have to be a competition between you and him? Just like with the Spiders, you are on the same team for this.” She looked down at their hands, still linked together. “I think you two are really lucky that you get to perform together. I wish I could sing with you, Kotaro.” Then she gave his hands a good long squeeze before she relinquished them. “Now go get yourself some sleep.”  
  
“Right,” he said, but in a dazed sort of voice, as if his mind had drifted somewhere else for a moment and just now returned. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Julie. Sweet dreams. And thanks.” Then he did something he had never done before; after he stood up to leave, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead.  
  
As she watched him exit her room, Julie wished him goodnight in a voice as light as clouds. “Sweet dreams, Kotaro.”

 

...

  
While guests at the Sullivan Ranch had to fend for themselves for lunch and dinner, breakfast was served up buffet style at 7:30 each morning to anyone who wanted it, including three wayward Spiders. Julie arrived at the dining hall and found Kotaro and Akaba already seated at a round table in front of plates of blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs. In typical fashion, Akaba was taking sensible bites while Kotaro’s technique could only be described as shoveling.  
  
Akaba stood and pulled out a chair for her. “Morning, Jewels. We didn’t know if you would get here before the good stuff was gone so I made you a plate. Hope you don’t mind.”  
  
“Not at all,” she said, looking down at the extra plate of breakfast that had somehow escaped her notice until she was sitting right in front of it. “Thanks. Hey, you got me cantaloupe. And put maple syrup on the eggs but not on the pancakes. How did you know?”  
  
Akaba looked across the table. “Actually, Kotaro told me what to get.”  
  
Affection, warm as sunlight, flooded her system. “In any case, I appreciate it,” she said, smiling at one of them and then the other.  
  
By now Kotaro had swallowed the generous mouthful that had prevented him from properly greeting her. “You know I would have pulled out your chair, too,” he said, brow furrowed. “Akaba just shot up to do it first because he’s a showoff. I’m every bit the gentleman he is. More so even.” Then he promptly maneuvered an entire pancake onto his fork and crammed the whole thing into his mouth.  
  
Julie sighed, but it was a tender sigh. Table manners aside, Kotaro was definitely on her good side today. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel his soft, warm lips on her forehead.  
  
When she was about two bites away from full, Roy and Molly appeared next to their table.  
  
“Akaba, Sasaki, you ‘bout ready to hit the road?” Roy asked.  
  
“Uh, yeah,” said Kotaro, pushing himself up from the table.  
  
Akaba handed him a napkin. “Use it.” Then he turned to Julie, his lips curling ever so slightly at the corners. “Stay out of trouble, Jewels.”  
  
It was an odd thing for Akaba to say, playful, teasing even, and Julie wasn’t exactly sure how to respond. “I will. You two better do the same.”  
  
“Don’t worry, Julie,” Kotaro said. “When we get back, we’ll be all signed up for an act you won’t forget.” He punctuated his sentence with a wink aimed directly at her before spinning around and walking out of the dining hall with the other two boys.  
  
Something about that wink didn’t sit well in Julie’s stomach. Could it be an ill omen? She didn’t have time to dwell on it, however, as Molly grabbed her hand and tugged her to her feet the moment the boys were gone.  
  
The young girl was wearing jeans, t-shirt, boots, and a wide smile. “So, Miss Sawai, how’d you like to help me out with the horses?”

 

...

  
As they fed and groomed the Sullivan’s ten horses together, Julie got to know Molly a lot better. The girl was an indefatigable chatterbox, sharing any thought that came to her mind without coaxing, but Julie didn’t find her at all obnoxious. Maybe it was because Molly reminded her so much of her own sister Harumi. Or maybe it was because Molly’s loquaciousness spared her from having to say much. Either way, listening to the younger girl prattle helped to pass the time.  
  
Molly mostly talked about horses. She was an avid equine enthusiast and while she wasn’t required to take care of the horses as part of her chores she always volunteered, which also got her out of doing indoor tasks that she considered far more odious. Julie had no complaints. The work wasn’t easy—ten stalls added up to a lot of manure for two girls to muck out—but it wasn’t unpleasant and a summer breeze helped to dissipate the smell.  
  
When Molly finally ran out of horse talk, there was a long stretch of quiet and Julie found herself thinking about Kotaro and Akaba, who were probably on their way back by now, and wondering if they’d been successful in their endeavor to enter the talent contest.  
  
“So, which one is your boyfriend?”  
  
The question immediately snapped Julie back to attention but also left her momentarily dumbstruck, staring at Molly with her mouth open for a full three seconds before she got any words to come out. “I... What do you mean?” Of course, she was pretty sure she knew exactly what Molly meant.  
  
And judging by the don’t-play-innocent-with-me look on her freckled face, Molly knew that she knew. “Akaba or Sasaki? Which is it?”  
  
“N-neither,” Julie said, as a prickling heat crept up her neck, threatening to spread to her cheeks. “They’re just my friends.”  
  
“Yeah, but you’ve gotta be into one of them,” Molly prodded playfully. “I mean, you have seen them, right?” She flashed a smile that was entirely too mischievous for a fourteen-year old girl talking about nineteen-year old boys. “You know, if I were you, I’d definitely go for Akaba. He’s so cool, not to mention gorgeous and polite. And I think he _really_ likes you, Sawai.”  
  
“Akaba just likes me as a friend,” Julie responded, but for some reason her brain chose that same moment to conjure up a very specific memory—a certain exchange that took place in a queen-size bed just two nights ago—and she felt a tiny ball of fire flare up in her belly. She had to repeat her answer silently to herself to extinguish the flame. _Akaba just likes me as a friend_.  
  
But Molly kept on talking, oblivious to any visible reactions that might have slipped through Julie’s strenuous efforts to stay perfectly composed. “That Sasaki is kind of a hothead, though. Yeah he’s cute and all, but he seems like he’d be pretty hard to deal with as a boyfriend. No offense, I mean _seriously_ no offense, but I think he may be a bit of an idiot.”  
  
Julie’s attempt at perfect composure instantaneously broke upon hearing that statement and laughter bubbled up from her chest like a reflex she couldn’t control. “You sound just like my sister, Harumi,” she said. “Kotaro is a complete and utter hothead. And he’s more than a bit of an idiot. But for some reason it’s really not that hard to deal with most of the time. We’ve always been together since we were kids so I guess I’ve just gotten use to it.”  
  
Molly shrugged, playing casual again. “Or maybe you just love him. One can’t help but notice that you call the idiot by his first name while you call Akaba by his last name, even though they both supposedly mean the same thing to you. Just friends.”  
  
“That’s just because Kotaro is Kotaro and Akaba is Akaba.” Julie knew that her reply was a nonsensical tautology, but she’d been thrown off guard by the question and by Molly’s way too blithe use—by Japanese standards, at least—of the L-word. She had never actually thought about what she called both boys and why before. “It’s not just me,” she elaborated, hoping it would satisfy her interrogated. “Everyone calls them by those names. You don’t exactly have to earn the right to call Kotaro by his first name.”  
  
“Well, why not call Akaba by his first name, too?” Molly asked.  
  
“I...” Again, this cheeky American tween was forcing Julie to think about something she’d always just accepted without question. Off-the-cuff, all she could come up with was another desultory response. “It would just be too weird, I guess. He’s always been Akaba just like Kotaro has always been Kotaro. It would be weird if things changed.”  
  
“Staying the same forever is kind of weird, too, you know.” Molly was already back to work, jabbing her pitchfork under a pile of straw as she spoke her last words on the matter. Funny how she could switch between verbosity and quietude so easily and to such dramatic effect. That girl loved to talk, but she knew when to choose her words carefully and then leave off.  
  
Having no counterargument, Julie got back to work, too, though her mind was still furiously contemplating the questions Molly had raised. They’d been talking about names, but Julie knew that the conversation was really about the relationships between her and Kotaro and Akaba.  
  
Why was she so determined to keep the dynamic between the three of them exactly the same as it had been in high school? She now was able to acknowledge the fact that she had feelings for Kotaro that were stronger than just friendship, but could she really bring herself to act on those feelings? She’d told Akaba that she wouldn’t make a move until after Kotaro got his closure with Jessica. But maybe that was an excuse to put off having to deal with her feelings. When she tried to imagine confessing to Kotaro, she couldn’t. Her brain refused to envisage a scenario where Kotaro became her boyfriend because he might not return her feelings anymore. And the possibility of him rejecting her feelings was far too painful to think about. So she clung to the ‘just friends’ label like a life preserver keeping her afloat on the churning, changing sea of emotion.  
  
And then there was Akaba. She wasn’t even sure how she felt about him, but she could sense that it was changing, had been changing since he’d entrusted her with his biggest secret on that rock on that beach on La Isla Hiruma. Or had it started even earlier? Alcohol had distorted her recollection of that party at the hotel in Hawaii into a hazy impressionistic painting of a horrible evening, but the memory of Akaba’s strong arms holding her steady remained untouched, pristine. He was always there for her, her rock, and she took for granted that he always would be. If she and Kotaro started dating, where would that leave Akaba?  
  
Her stomach was on the verge of twisting itself into a queasy knot under the tensile force of all these questions—she couldn’t even make up her mind whether they were utterly profound or utterly profane—when she heard familiar voices and was relieved by the distraction. The guys were back.  
  
“This is all on you,” Akaba’s voice spoke, cool, but with a dark undercurrent of irritation. “You are the one responsible so you are the one who is going to explain everything to her.”  
  
Uh-oh. It was bad news.  
  
There was a disdainful snort that was unmistakably Kotaro. “Would you stop acting like she’s going to be upset, Akaba? I think she’ll be happy with her surprise.”  
  
Wait, was it good news? A surprise from Kotaro could go either way.  
  
“I guess you’re about to find out,” Akaba said to Kotaro, unknowingly answering Julie’s question. A moment later the two of them, as well as Roy Sullivan, were framed in the open door to the stable. Only Kotaro looked pleased; the other two looked wary.  
  
“You’re back,” Julie said, as she met them at the entrance. “How did it go? Are you guys in?”  
  
Akaba sucked in a lungful of air and released it as a long, slow _fuu~_. “Go ahead and tell her, Kotaro.”  
  
The pleased expression on Kotaro’s face was suddenly looking more strained, still in place, but with effort, revealed in the subtlest twitching of his jaw muscles. “I’ve got really, really exciting news,” he said in a voice that was unconvincingly excited. “As you know, the original plan was for me and Akaba to enter the talent contest together as an act. But at the last minute, I thought of something even better.”  
  
“Wait,” Julie said, holding up a hand. “Are you trying to tell me that you and Akaba decided to enter separately?” She’d included Akaba as a decision maker in her accusation, but she knew—from what she’d overheard as well as what she knew of their personalities—that if they’d split up their act, it was all Kotaro’s doing.  
  
“I didn’t decide anything,” Akaba confirmed. “And just wait until you hear the rest of the story, Jewels.”  
  
She felt dread begin to rise inside her like a tide or vomit. Her anxious eyes implored Kotaro to continue.  
  
“No need to look so nervous,” he said, though he was sounding a bit anxious himself. “Akaba’s just trying to scare you.”  
  
“So, you won’t be singing all on your own?”  
  
“Nope,” he said, confidence at least partially, temporarily restored. “I’ll be singing with my favorite person in the whole world. Surprise, Julie! You’re wish has come true!”  
  
“My... wish?” she uttered. Then there was a protracted silence. It took several seconds for the meaning of Kotaro’s words to sink in and then several more for Julie to carefully remove the suede work gloves she’d been wearing and grasp them by the cuffs in one tight fist.  
  
“Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!” she bellowed as she smacked Kotaro over and over across the top of his head with the gloves. “Why would you sign me up to sing in a talent contest? WHY?”  
  
“Ow! Why? Stop!” Kotaro’s protests were disjointed, punctuated by the padded slaps of the gloves against his head and face and shoulders. “Why are you hitting me? I thought you wanted to sing with me. Isn’t that what you wished?”  
  
Julie stopped abruptly. Damn it, he was right. She _had_ told him that she wished she could sing with him. Technically, _she_ was the idiot; she should have known better than to voice silly daydreams in his presence, after all. But still she shifted the blame to the guy who’d signed her up for this. Now that suspicious little wink of his made sense; he was already planning to do this before he even left! Probably since last night when she’d opened her big mouth!  
  
“You idiot!” she repeated, louder and angrier. “You should have asked me first!”  
  
Kotaro looked confused, his arms still raised defensively even though the attack had ceased. “But, it _is_ what you wanted, right? You said you wished you could sing with me.”  
  
“Yeah.” Julie snapped, making him flinch. “If I could sing! Do you not remember our childhood at all?”  
  
His arms finally dropped back down to his sides and he stared at her, blinking. “You can’t sing?”  
  
By now her anger was already starting to melt into a frustration-despair hybrid and she sighed in defeat. “I can’t carry a tune with a bucket. I can’t believe you didn’t remember that. It’s got to be the only thing about me that you’ve ever forgotten.”  
  
“But I remember you singing that silly song about how opposites attract into your hairbrush.”  
  
“That was Paula Abdul,” Julie groaned, raking her fingers down her face. “I was lip-syncing, Kotaro. Lip-syncing!”  
  
“Oh,” he said. His face was remarkably blank as his brain processed the situation. “So I probably shouldn’t have signed us up for a duet.”  
  
“You think?” There was still some bite in her voice, but it was due to exasperation rather than anger. “I still don’t get how this even happened. What did Akaba say to you when you told him about the change? I’m sure he must have tried to talk some sense into you.”  
  
“Actually, I was not even consulted on this decision,” Akaba answered. “It was completely unilateral.”  
  
Of course. Julie drew in a calming breath before asking for the details she knew would probably make her want to tear her hair out. “Okay, Akaba, please tell me _exactly_ what happened.”  
  
“Well, during the drive to the community center, we finalized our song choice and we agreed that when we registered, I would do the talking since my English is better. But when we got there we  discovered that registration is done through a written form. So I got one to fill out and Kotaro asked for one just to look at. At least that’s what he said. When I tried to turn in the completed form, the administrator said that the last spot in the contest had just been filled. It wasn’t until we were on the way home commiserating over our failure that Kotaro revealed he was the one who claimed that last spot, and that he’d included you in his act. Unfortunately, it was too late to do anything at that point.”  
  
“I didn’t know it was the last spot,” Kotaro said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting severely. “Besides, I thought...” He shifted his gaze to the side, away from Julie. “I thought you’d be happy.”  
  
“Oh Kotaro,” Julie sighed, an admission of defeat. “I know your heart was in the right place. It usually is. You just have this really bad habit of not using your brain.” She’d told Molly that Kotaro’s idiocy was just something she’d gotten used to from spending time with him, but the truth was all there in the words she’d just spoken; it was Kotaro’s pure heart that made his idiocy tolerable, at times even endearing, and she would always put up with him. And he would always make her sigh. She allowed herself a small smile despite how bad things had turned out. “Out of curiosity, what kind of act did you sign us up for?”  
  
“Here, I’ll show you,” he said. “Roy, can you pull up the website for the contest on your phone?”  
  
Roy, who’d been silent and completely inconspicuous since arriving, now took his smartphone from his pocket and did some quick, businesslike maneuvering with his thumbs before handing it to Kotaro who promptly handed it to Julie. She read the description of their act out loud.  
  
“Ichiban Suzuki and his lovely lady, Ai Hoshino, performing a spirited duet of 1980s pop hit, Opposites Attract.”  
  
When she got to the end, Julie looked up at Kotaro with a cocked eyebrow.  
  
His facial expression tottered between slightly proud and slightly embarrassed. “Yeah, I didn’t want to risk anyone recognizing our names as the passengers who disappeared from the cruise ship, so I used fake names. Pretty smart, right?”  
  
“I guess it makes sense,” she said. “Interesting choice of song, I must say.”  
  
“I’m just impressed you were able to fill out the form so legibly in English,” Akaba added.  
  
They were trying to make light of the situation together, but it wouldn’t do anything to solve the dilemma they were now in. It didn’t matter what names they used or what song they were signed up for or how well Kotaro had described the act on the registration form. Without a female voice, there couldn’t be a performance.  
  
Julie turned to Molly, though she didn’t have her hopes set too high. “I don’t suppose you sing, Miss Molly?”  
  
“Sorry,” the girl said, sadly shaking her head. “According to my brother I sound like a dying coyote that swallowed a cactus.”  
  
“Then I guess we have no choice,” Julie sighed. “We’ll have to drop out.”  
  
“Hey, wait a minute,” Kotaro objected. “We’ve already sunk one hundred borrowed bucks into this and I gave my word that I’d win and pay it back. I _refuse_ to give up just yet. All we need a female singer, right?”  
  
“No.” All eyes turned to Akaba, who had shifted into contemplation mode, steepling his fingers in front of his lips and speaking slowly and purposefully from behind them. “We don’t need a female singer. We just need a person who can sing the female part. Any person.”  
  
Any person? What was he implying? It was right on the cusp of Julie’s mind, leaking a strange excitement into her system even before her conscious brain seized upon the meaning of what he was saying. She turned to share a look with Kotaro, who, having apparently reached the same conclusion that she had, was biting back laughter. His efforts didn’t hold for long, though.  
  
“Seriously?” He followed the question with a wild bark of laughter. “You seriously think a man is going to want to sing a woman’s part in a duet with another man? Plus the description even says _lovely lady_ , so he’d actually have to dress in drag. And we still don’t have anyone who fits the bill, anyways. We’re more likely to find a random woman on the streets who can sing the part than a man with that kind of vocal range.”  
  
Akaba was as unperturbed as ever; he’d calmly started strumming his invisible guitar. “I wasn’t proposing that we ask a stranger to sing for us. There just so happens to be someone at this very ranch who has phenomenal vocal range and who I think could pull off the female part quite well.”  
  
Julie figured it out a immediately, but Kotaro didn’t and glowered at Akaba as he rudely interrogated. “Who? Who is this fantastic male singer with the phenom...” And then it hit him, the belated moment of realization. Kotaro’s mouth twisted down into an expression of abject horror. “Wait,” he uttered. “You mean _me_?”  
  
With a sigh, Akaba set down his imaginary guitar and met Kotaro’s incredulous stare. “Fuu~ I would do it myself if I could. I can sing decently, but I’m nowhere near as talented or as versatile as you are. You are the only one who can do it. Or do you not think you can.”  
  
“I can!” Kotaro snapped. “I’m sure I _can_ sing the female part. I just... It’s embarrassing, okay! Not so much the singing, but the pretending to be a woman part!”  
  
“It’s not like anybody who knows you will be there to see it,” Molly optimistically cut in. “Besides me and Roy, that is.”  
  
“And Julie!” Kotaro blurted out her name fast and loud. His face was staining an exceedingly rare shade of pink. “I don’t want her to see me singing as a woman. Especially since I assume you were planning on taking over the male part?”  
  
“Yes, that was my plan.” Akaba’s deliberate intonation made the statement into an unspoken question: _Do you have a better idea_?  
  
But Julie’s brain was still caught on the fact that she’d just been fingered as a source of embarrassment by Kotaro. She’d never seriously considered the possibility that Kotaro even experienced embarrassment; he never seemed afflicted by it any of the many times he’d disrupted another team’s football game, ranting and raving about the importance of kicking. The color of his cheeks right now was the first solid evidence she’d seen against her preconceived notion. Why would he be embarrassed about this of all things?  
  
“Kotaro, you know I won’t think any less of you for singing a female part,” she said, almost pleadingly. He needed more than just words of encouragement, though, so she reached out and touched his arm softly. “This might be our only chance to earn enough money to get to New York. If you can make it happen, I’ll think even more of you. I think it takes a real man to put on a dress and sing on stage.”She convinced herself that this wasn’t emotional manipulation because she really did mean it; there was something strangely, illogically manly about a guy who was unashamed to dress in drag.  
  
Or maybe her tastes were more twisted than she’d realized. The image of Kotaro in a skirt was not nearly as unappealing as she knew it should have been.  
  
“Well, when you put it that way...” Kotaro said.  
  
“Also, it is kind of your fault that we’re in this situation,” Akaba smoothly reminded.  
  
That elicited a small growl from Kotaro. “I’ll do it. But not because you said so, Akaba. Because of what Julie said. This is our one shot, our Christmas Bowl, and I’m not going to blow it. I’ll stake my pride as a man on it.”  
  
Akaba was dangerously close to smiling as he nodded in agreement. “Alright, then. I guess we’d better get to rehearsing, Ai Hoshino.”  
  
Even though Kotaro looked less than pleased at Akaba calling him by the monicker he’d picked out for Julie, he had no words of protest left. “I guess so, Ichiban Suzuki.” He turned to Julie and she could still see the faintest traces of his otherwise extinguished blush. “Well, Julie, you’re the style expert so I’m depending on you for the critical task. To keep my pride as a man, I need you to make a woman out of me.”


	13. Chapter 13

Track 13: Some Like It Hot

  
  
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” Each staccato yelp of pain Kotaro released was accompanied by its own individual cringe.   
  
Julie’s hand stilled and the tweezers hovered in front of his face like a stealthy predator just waiting for the right moment to strike again. “You had your chance to object before I started,” she said, not completely without sympathy. “But now that I’ve done one, you’ll have to endure the other. You don’t want to be lopsided, do you?”  
  
“No,” he said before he sucked in his lower lip and gripped it lightly with his teeth. In typical Kotaro fashion he still managed to talk, but his words were tight and slightly slurred. “I gabe my word thet I’d do dis, so I’m gumma do ik right.” He dragged in a hiss of air, one final wince, as Julie plucked the last errant hairs from between his eyebrows.  
  
“Your torture is done,” she said. “They definitely look better now, more feminine.” A low grumble she was probably not meant to hear escaped Kotaro’s throat and she clucked her tongue. “Don’t worry. It’s not a big change. They’re just a bit... neater than before. And besides, they’ll grow back before you know it. Now, time for the makeup.”  
  
They were in the room that Kotaro and Akaba had been sharing the past several days. Kotaro was sitting on the edge of the bed and Julie was in a chair facing him, attempting to work magic. After half a week of intensive rehearsal—interspersed with some good old-fashioned manual ranch labor—they had reached the end zone. Or nearly had. It was the day of the talent contest, still hours away, but the long drive ahead necessitated early preparations.   
  
“You’re lucky you’ve got such a naturally smooth complexion,” Julie said as she stippled foundation cream onto Kotaro’s skin with a wedge of foam. “Stubble would have been a lot harder to work with.” She was so close to his face that when he frowned she could see the delicate feathering of a dozen different muscles responsible for creating the expression.  
  
“You pointing out how un-manly my face is doesn’t exactly make this more fun,” he said.  
  
“Oh don’t be such a baby,” she said, hoping her chipper tone and breezy smile would jolly him back up. “I meant it as a compliment. You know as well as I do that you are extremely handsome, Kotaro. And if you have any doubts, just remember all those girls who showed up to Daddy Long Legs’ last show, wearing your face on t-shirts and screaming your name.”  
  
Actually, Julie wasn’t especially fond of that memory. Thinking about Kotaro’s hordes of female admirers triggered a miserable, shameful stab of jealousy that she wished she was too cool and mature to experience. The only consolation she got was from knowing that she at least acknowledged how selfish those feelings were and kept them to herself.  
  
Kotaro shrugged. “I guess you have a point. I thought they liked me mostly for my voice, though.”  
  
Julie paused between putting away the foundation and taking out the powder and gave Kotaro a classic smirk-with-one-raised-eyebrow look. “So it was all because of your voice that they made those ‘Marry me, Kotaro!’ signs?” She started counting seconds in her head to see how long it would take for a crack to appear in his humble veneer. _One. Two. Three._  
  
And there it was, a tiny grin of satisfaction. “Okay, I’ll admit it. The chicks think I’m pretty hot. But I suspect a lot of it is just the rock star effect. Being on stage with a band, microphone in hand, lights flashing and fog machine going, it kind of distorts things. I don’t think any of those girls would be interested in Kotaro the football kicker. And he’s got the exact same face.”  
  
As he spoke, Julie went back to work applying makeup to turn Sasaki Kotaro into Hoshino Ai—the name he’d picked out was even more ridiculous in proper Japanese order—but she was listening very intently. The conversation had strayed from the topic of Kotaro’s baby-smooth cheeks and into the far more interesting territory of the nature of fame and Julie relished this window into her best friend’s psyche.  
  
“I have to admit that it’s pretty intoxicating,” he continued. “Having complete strangers know your face, your name. Watching members of the opposite sex fall over themselves trying to get your attention. It’s not like it was at the World Cup, where the fans were cheering for the whole team and maybe knew the names Gao or Shin, if they knew any. But the first time Daddy Long Legs played to a full house...” His voice trailed off as his thoughts retreated back into the internal world of his brain for a few beats, to a rockstar fantasy Julie couldn’t see. “I guess I let it go to my head. I started to believe my own hype.”  
  
“Well, you do deserve some hype, I think,” Julie said. She was dabbing beads of glue along rims of his eyelids and pressing long, black, perfectly curled fake eyelashes into place on top of his natural ones. “You do have a truly incredible voice, and you are very good-looking.”  
  
“True,” he said, that tiny grin returning. “But I’m not a rock and roll sex god. I think I got caught up in pretending I was because I was sick of my boring, unchanging life and it was an escape. It was new and exciting, like getting to live somebody much more interesting’s life.” His expression soured and irritation stained his voice. “Of course, it was losing the real me to the rock star image that led to me straight into the open claws of Jessica Coburn.”  
  
Julie felt a lump swell up in her throat when she heard that name. Their days at the ranch had been so filled up with assiduous contest preparations and physically demanding—albeit very satisfying—labor that not one of them had found the time to talk about the woman who had thrown them into this chaos. But Julie knew that even though Jessica had been absent from their conversations, she was still a touchy subject for Kotaro. “You had no way of knowing what she was really like, Kotaro,” she said in her gentlest voice.   
  
“That’s exactly the point!” His response was almost aggravated enough to be considered a stammer. “I didn’t know _anything_ about her. I was just so high on being a star and being desirable...” By now he was animated enough that Julie had to withdrawn her eyeshadow brush and just let him vent; he raked both hands through his hair and growled. “Did you know, for the first time in my life, I actually feel like an idiot thanks to that women?”  
  
Julie held her tongue.  
  
Kotaro rolled back his head and let out a small groan. “I can’t believe I almost had sex with her.”  
  
That snared Julie’s attention immediately. Without stopping to consider if it was appropriate or not, she blurted out, “Almost?”  
  
He didn’t hesitate to share. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it would have happened on the cruise if the truth hadn’t come out first.” He was looking down at his lap now and not at her, which probably made this dialogue easier for both of them, especially since his face was half made-up right now and a little hard to take seriously. “But she’d already been hounding me for a while. Even though she was pretending she didn’t speak Japanese, she demonstrated enough grasp of the language to threaten to tell the tabloids that I’m gay if I kept on holding out. That Jessica is surprisingly sexually aggressive.” Actually, it wasn’t all that surprising.   
  
Julie’s fingers gently gripped Kotaro’s chin and guided his face back up so she could finish her cosmetological grand opus. His dark, smoky grey eyes were right in front of hers, just centimeters away. “Close your eyes,” she said—though she wouldn’t have minded looking into them a little bit longer—and when he did she went back to the dangling conversation. “I’m not going to lie, I am a little shocked that you didn’t sleep with Jessica.” _Shocked_ was the word she used, but _relieved_ was what she honestly, possessively, felt. “I mean, putting my negative feelings for the woman aside, I can admit that she is ridiculously attractive and just oozes sex appeal. And you seemed _really_ enthusiastic about other physical displays of, uh, affection. Akaba as good as told me that you two had already slept together.”  
  
Kotaro snorted. “What does Akaba know? I’m not the kind of guy who takes sex lightly. I don’t want to have sex with somebody I’m not in love with, especially my first time. And I guess on some level I must have known I wasn’t really in love with Jessica.” He opened his painted eyes, long lashes fluttering. “I sound like a woman, don’t I?”  
  
A grin spread across her face and evolved into a giggle. “No, but you sure as hell look like one. Okay, all that’s left is blush and lipstick.” The blush she chose was coral-colored with just a hint of shimmer and she swept it over Kotaro’s cheekbones with a big, minky-soft brush. “For what it’s worth, I think it is very respectable that you have high standards. I really admire that about you.”  
  
“I never really thought of it as having high standards,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “I guess I’ve just had this idea in my head for so long about what my first time will be like, who it will be with. It’s hard to let go of.” His eyes, which had been rolled up as high as they would go while she was applying the blush, suddenly connected with hers and went wide with horror at what had just exited his mouth. “Ah! I didn’t mean...! I mean, I’ve never actually imagined you...! With me...! Crap!”   
  
The words had hit Julie in the same instant Kotaro realized he’d said them and her heart reacted with unprecedented dynamism, beating against her breastbone like an angry fist against a door. At least she managed a verbal response that was slightly less spluttering than his. “It’s ok! Don’t worry about it. It’s... It’s okay, really.” It was all she could think to say. She wasn’t ready to think about Kotaro thinking about making love to her, not when there were much more important thing she needed her brain for—and if she did pursue that line of thought, she feared there would be no coming back.   
  
She needed to refocus on her present task.   
  
Her hand shook almost undetectably as she daubed his lips generously with gloss. When she finished, she once again guided him by the chin to meet her gaze and smiled at him, knowing her own makeup-free cheeks were probably pinker than his at the moment. “Ready to put on the wig?”  
  
He nodded, jaw still cradled on her fingertips.  
  
She helped Kotaro get his wig in place, tucking away any sprays of black hair that tried to escape and securing it all with a dozen well placed bobby pins. It was a surprisingly nice wig for having come from a thrift shop; soft, shimmery curls of milktea brown tumbled over his shoulders and cascaded down his back. It was princess hair and it looked shockingly good on him.  
  
“Alright,” she said, reaching for a handheld mirror. “Ready to see yourself, Miss Hoshino?” She held up the mirror in front of his face and nervously asked, “So what do you think?”  
  
“Whoa.” The voice that answered didn’t belong to Kotaro.  
  
Twisting around in her chair, Julie saw a tall young man with black hair and dark eyes framed in the opened door and it took a moment for her to connect the familiar voice with his unfamiliar appearance. “Akaba, you look handsome.”  
  
Though he was talking to Julie, his eyes were fixed on Kotaro, staring. “Thanks, Jewels. I decided to go back to black for the contest. I thought it was a pretty dramatic change when I looked in the mirror, but now I find myself suddenly reevaluating my definition of dramatic.”  
  
“Why don’t you take a picture?” Kotaro snarled, flicking up both middle fingers and waving them at Akaba. “It’ll last longer, you slack-jawed pervert!”  
  
“Laying on the feminine charm already,” Julie said, sarcasm thick in her voice, and at the same time, a camera flash filled the room with its split-second burst of light.  
  
“Miss Molly’s digital camera,” Akaba explained of the gadget in his hand. “She asked me to help her get lots of photos of this momentous day. Sorry about the staring, Kotaro, it’s just a little hard not to. You look so...” He paused to search his personal lexicon for the word he wanted. “Cute,” he finally decided, simple but very apt.  
  
Julie had put all of her fashion know-how into Kotaro’s transformation. If there were any shortcomings in his female facade, they were due to budgetary constraints or the insuperable fact that he is a man, and were not from lack of skill or effort on her part. She’d dressed him in black leggings that made his legs look longer and leaner, paired with a denim skirt in a style that gave the illusion of wider hips. A piece of shapewear that was probably not very comfortable cinched his waste and a bra filled with artificial endowments created an hourglass figure, which was sheathed in a close-fitting white shirt. Completing the ensemble were a vintage leopard-print jacket—courtesy of Mrs. Sullivan—from the 1980s that covered up those broad shoulders and corded arms, and a chic scarf to hide his adam’s apple.  
  
Kotaro’s lower lip jutted out petulantly and he folded his arms tightly over his generously padded chest. “Just shut up, okay?” he huffed. “And stop staring.”  
  
“Sorry, sorry,” Akaba said coolly and turned to Julie, who was up from her seat now.  
  
“So, does your reaction mean that I did a good job?” she asked, hopeful.  
  
“Frighteningly good,” he said. “Now I wish I’d asked you to make me over. You’d have made me look a lot better than I managed on my own.”  
  
Receiving a compliment from Akaba always left Julie with a warm, sparkling feeling in the indistinct region between her stomach and her chest, probably because she knew he’d never give one out unless he really meant it. “Thanks,” she said. “But I think you did an excellent job. I was being honest when I said you look handsome.”   
  
Ridiculously handsome, to be even more honest. His red hair and eyes had been trademarks for so long that she never even imagined what he would look with natural coloration. The impression he made was a sultry prince that had stepped right out of a shojo manga. Part of the effect came from the flawless ensemble he’d put together. Tight red pants assured that his favorite hue was still prominently featured. On top he wore white shirt, partially unbuttoned, and a black jacket cut just right to emphasize his near perfect proportions. The only jewelry he wore was a pair of stud earrings made of fiery red crystal. It was simple, streamlined, sexy.  
  
But despite the high-toned threads Julie’s attention kept coming back to his eyes, his hair. There was no denying the resemblance to Kotaro now. The two really did look like brothers—well, like brother and sister at the moment—and it made her feel very aware of the secret she and Akaba were keeping, weighty and beautiful as a large jewel buried inside her. As her own eyes plumbed the charcoal depths of his, she got an inexplicable sense that they were sharing the same thought.  
  
But their synchrony was very sort-lived, terminated by an annoyed grunt from Kotaro. “He stares at me. You stare at him. Can we just get on with things already?”  
  
“Ah, yes,” Julie said, mind returned to present concerns. “I just have one more detail to add. For you, Akaba.” From a shopping back next to the bed she pulled out a pair of black cat ears mounted on a headband. “I thought it might be cute. Like in the video.”   
  
As part of their preparations, they’d watched the music video for _Opposites Attract_ multiple times on Molly’s computer and each time Kotaro had ruthlessly made fun of the cartoon cat singing alongside Paula Abdul. “At least I don’t have to sing with some stupid cat,” he’d said enough times for it to be obnoxious.  
  
But Akaba looked pleased—that is, he wore a very small, mild smile—as he took the cat ears and placed them on his head. “Thanks, Jewels. Cute?”  
  
She nodded approvingly. “Adorable.”  
  
“Pfft! I’m cuter,” Kotaro huffed. He looked just a sulking young starlet, which gave Julie an upwelling of pride. If the whole fashion design thing didn’t work out, perhaps she could have a lucrative career as a stylist for female impersonators.

  
...

  
Almost as soon as they had arrived at the community center, Kotaro and Akaba had been herded down a hallway by a young volunteer with the efficiency of a border collie to the room where competitors were to wait. Julie only managed to stay with them because Akaba had said something in English that convinced their energetic guide that she was an integral part of the act. Later, he whispered in her ear, “I told her you’re our vocal coach. I hope you don’t mind.” Needless to say, Julie did not mind.  
  
They were now in a large rehearsal room that was serving as holding cell for the performers, but before they’d so hastily been ushered away, they had managed to get a good glimpse into the enormous amphitheater that the boys would be singing to. There had to be at least three hundred seats, and well over half of them were filled. All four Sullivans were in there somewhere. It was not as large a crowd as the Daddy Long Legs concert in Hawaii had attracted, but it was still a greater attendance than Julie had envisioned for this rural event.   
  
Of course she had based her assumption entirely on the vast swathes of undeveloped desert that had zoomed past their windows on the car ride to get here and, in actuality, had no idea how big the county was or how many people inhabited it. A lot, it turned out. And, based on the number of people stowed in the rehearsal room, a lot of them had talents they felt were competition worthy.  
  
A poster-sized program listing twenty different acts had been printed out and hung on the wall. Ichiban Suzuki and Ai Hoshino were slated to perform last, which made sense since they’d been the very last to sign up. The strategical advantage or disadvantage of this position was unknown, or if was known by any one of them, that person didn’t speak up. Even Akaba the analyst had no commentary about having to wait out nineteen other performances—most if not all of which were much more thoroughly planned and rehearsed—before he and Kotaro took the stage.  
  
Kotaro, Akaba, and Julie were all silent as stones. At some point during the hour-long drive, an atmosphere of hushed anticipation had settled like a fog over them. It filled Julie’s stomach with churning anxiety to hear so little—well, nothing—from Kotaro, but at the same time she was terrified that if she spoke to alleviate the silence it would only make all of them more nervous. So she just let it churn.   
  
She was no longer worried about Kotaro not passing as a woman. She had done an excellent job of disguising his appearance and he was, so far at least, doing a surprisingly good job of acting the part, thanks to some intensive couching from Julie and the Sullivan ladies.   
  
It was his fluctuating mood that had her worried now. He’d been grouchy towards Akaba before leaving the ranch, which was nothing unusual. When Molly started snapping dozens of photos with her digital camera, it didn’t take long for him to go from irritated to cocksure, posing and posturing with relish, which was also nothing unusual. But once they were en route, all it took was for a man in a passing vehicle to hoot an obscene come-on at Ai to send Kotaro’s spirit plummeting; he’d immediately reclined his seat all the way back so that nobody in other cars could see him and hadn’t said more than a few words since.  
  
Was he still feeling self-conscious? Would it effect his performance? He was wearing his lucky Elvis bracelet, even though it didn’t match the outfit Julie had picked out, but did he still have faith in it’s power?  
  
Without saying a word, Julie sat down next to him on the costume trunk where he was perched and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.  
  
“Julie, what are you doing?” he asked, looking at her with wide, surprised eyes.  
  
She smiled at him, and now that he had broken the silence she felt like she could speak again, too. “I just thought you might need a little encouragement, from one woman to another. It’s perfectly normal for girl friends to hold each other.”  
  
His expression changed from stunned to mellow in two blinks. “You’re right. I don’t suppose it’s also perfectly normal for girl friends to kiss?”  
  
“Only on the cheek,” she said. Kotaro was back to his normal self and it felt weight had been lifted from the center of her chest.  
  
He leaned down and planted a quick little peck on her check and they continued the wait in better spirits. Before long, Akaba was lecturing Kotaro on his weak spots from their last rehearsals and how to avoid them and Kotaro was dismissing Akaba’s constructive criticism with hand waves and little nasal sounds.  
  
They were tucked into a corner of the room; around them, other contestants buzzed like busy little bees, warming up voices and violins, tuning guitars and practicing juggling. Despite the fact that they were all each others’ rivals, there was no sense of animosity amongst the performers. Many of them appeared to be acquainted already and engaged in cheery conversations. Several people even came over and introduced themselves to the Bando trio, including at least three different men—as well of one cheeky ventriloquist dummy—that Julie was pretty sure were trying to flirt with Ai. To her relief, Kotaro handled the attention much more gracefully than he had in the car.  
  
As each act left the rehearsal room to take the stage, he or she or they crossed off the name of the act on the program poster and the next act was on deck. And as the evening wore on, the population of the room grew smaller, calmer and quieter. Eventually it was just the final three acts left: a girl with a flute who was chewing her lower lip, the young man with the ventriloquist dummy, and Ai and Ichiban. They were all silent now.  
  
When the flutist was summoned, Kotaro’s leg began to jiggle, just a little quivering at first, but it quickly intensified until his foot was tapping a frantic tattoo on the carpeted floor.   
  
“Ai, are you okay?” Julie asked. But his knee kept on bouncing until she placed her hand on it. “Ai? You okay? You seem kind of nervous.”  
  
His leg stopped moving and he looked at her with eyes that were surrounded by makeup but still all Kotaro. “I’m fine. I just... I have to use the bathroom.”  
  
“Well, you’d better go now,” Akaba said. “And hurry back before it’s our time.”  
  
“I know that,” Kotaro said snippily. “How dumb do you think I am?”  
  
Akaba didn’t answer.  
  
“Be careful,” Julie reminded, barely above a whisper. “Stay in character, Ai.” She watched as he exited the room, walking with the subtle sway of hips that she’d made him practice over and over, and felt her anxiety ebb. “What do you think, Akaba? Will our songstress be okay on stage?”  
  
Akaba was standing with his back against the wall. His head was bowed to watch his fingers as they held down chords along the fretboard of his electric guitar, but it wasn’t plugged into an amp and he wasn’t strumming anyways so the only sounds it produced were quiet little clacks. “Yeah, she’ll be outstanding.” Though he spoke very softly, he maintained feminine pronouns just to be safe. “We both know what that girl can accomplish when she is passionate about something. And while she isn’t passionate about her new stage persona, she is passionate about winning.”  
  
Julie smiled and nodded. “You’re right about that. And what about you, Akaba? Are you nervous at all?”  
  
His fingers continued their dance and the guitar strings clicked. “No. Not really.” Of course he wasn’t.  
  
The ventriloquist was summoned and as he walked out of the room with dummy in tow, Kotaro walked in. He had a flustered expression on his pretty face and Julie immediately hopped up from the trunk and grabbed both his hands. “Did something happen?”  
  
“No,” Kotaro said. “No. Well, sort of. But not really. There was this lady giving me the strangest look when I came out of the men’s room. It was just weird, freaked me out a little.”  
  
Julie gaped, stunned not only by the incredible fumble Kotaro had just revealed but by the fact that he didn’t even realize what he’d done wrong. “Men’s room?” she hissed. “Why would you go into the men’s room, Ai? You are supposed to be a girl! Remember? No wonder you got weird looks! What were you thinking?”  
  
The scolded puppy look on Kotaro’s face shot a pang of regret through Julie’s stomach; that last line might have been a bit too harsh. But, seriously, what had he been thinking?  
  
Akaba’s pressed his face into his hand and shook his head. “Every time I think I’ve seen the full extent of your idiocy, you have to prove me wrong, Kotaro.”  
  
Kotaro’s pout twisted into a scowl. “I had to pee. What was I supposed to do? They don’t have urinals in the ladies’ room, you know.”  
  
“I do know,” she snapped, getting up in his face. “Did you know men can pee in regular toilets? And it might have been just one woman, but what if she spreads the word to the judges? They’ll think this act was just one big drag queen joke! They’ll never take it seriously!”  
  
“Uh, Jewels?” Akaba calmly interrupted. “We’re kind of running that risk already. Though I do agree that Kotaro’s carelessness might further damage our reputation if the judges find out. Either _he_ is a transvestite or _she_ is a pervert.”  
  
“I guess it doesn’t really matter now,” Julie sighed, backing out of Kotaro’s personal space with relaxing shoulders. “The damage is done so you guys just have to give it your all and hope that the bathroom fiasco remains unreported or is merely forgotten in light of how awesome you are. The show must go on.” She extended her hand, palm down, in front of her and the boys drew  in close for a triangular huddle and put their hands over hers. “Let’s kick some ass,” she said—the same thing she used to say before the Spiders’ took the field—as the door to the rehearsal room cracked open and a volunteer waved them forward.  
  
Julie was allowed to come backstage with them and help them set up behind the thick curtain of burgundy velvet. The projection booth already had their lighting effects, but she had to get the fog machine into place and put some tiny bits of blue masking tape on the floor as marks for the simple choreography she’d taught the boys. Akaba was setting up his guitar, adjusting all the knobs on the amp. Kotaro was peering surreptitiously around the edge of the curtain.  
  
“Get your head back in here,”Julie whispered, gently pulling on his elbow. “You gotta make sure your mike is ready to go. And that guy with the creepy doll is still out there, right? You don’t want to disrupt anyone else’s act.”  
  
“I didn’t actually stick my head out. Don’t worry, nobody saw me.” He paused a moment. His eyebrows were knitted awfully tight for someone who wasn’t worried. “I saw her, Julie. The lady from the bathroom is right in the front of the audience. Sitting at the big table.”  
  
There was only one table and it was not for regular audience members.   
  
_Crap_ , Julie thought as her forehead prickled in anticipation of encroaching sweat. She peeked through the same gap Kotaro had moments before and heard his soft, thin voice in her ear.  
  
“She’s the one with the short blond hair and glasses.”  
  
The house lights were down but the illumination from the stage lights spilled out far enough that the five judges, three women and two men, were clearly visible from the shadowed nook where Julie was spying. They were sitting in a row behind a long table and each was clutching a pen a clipboard. The bespectacled blond sat in the middle.   
  
On stage, the ventriloquist’s dummy apparently told a final joke—to tepid laughter, which made Julie feel a little more hopeful about the competition—and then both human and puppet bowed. The judges all stood to applaud, and Julie watched the blonde keenly as an emcee announced the final act, searching for any indication of bias.  
  
“And now our final performance of the evening, two young singers from the Land of the Rising Sun! Bringing you a blast from the past, dashing Ichiban Suzuki and luscious Ai Hoshino present Opposites Attract!”  
  
With only a few seconds, at most, before she had to scurry off the stage, Julie tried to make observations as quickly as possible. The blonde had a suspicious grin on her face, almost like she was suppressing laughter. Not good. Then she turned to the female judge on her left and whispered something in her ear and the second judge grinned as well. Very not good. Then blondie turned to the right whispered in that female judge’s ear. All three of the women at the judges’ table knew the truth; it was written on their snickering faces.   
  
But then, just as she was about to retreat, Julie’s eyes noticed the t-shirts that the three judges were wearing. One was a band shirt for a Japanese visual kei group. One looked handmade and had an image of two popular male anime characters embracing on it. And the blonde with the glasses wore a shirt that said _I LOVE YAOI_ , in Japanese.  
  
It appeared Ai’s not-so-secret y-chromosome wouldn’t be a liability after all.  
  
Mollified, Julie ducked back into the wings and held her breath as the curtain rose.  
  



	14. Chapter 14

Track 14: Addicted to Love

* * *

  
  
“Kanpai!”  
  
Four mouths cheered the word in unison as four glass mugs, three filled with beer and one with iced tea, clinked together sloshing their foamy contents down onto four wrists. Although Roy, Akaba, and Julie were not technically of legal drinking age, the Sullivans made an exception as long as they kept the celebration at the ranch. Molly, despite her most ardent pleading, was extended no such privilege. Absent from the little circle of revelry was Kotaro; he’d torn off his wig and removed his phony bosoms in the car and the moment they arrived back at the ranch had sprinted to his room to purge himself of the remainders of Hoshino Ai.  
  
They would toast again after he joined them. He’d certainly earned his drink tonight.  
  
If Julie had paused to reflect on her previous experience with alcohol she probably would have chosen tea instead, but right now she was still too giddy from the boys’ grand prize winning performance—already drunk in a sense—to use her best judgement. The first mouthful of beer was bitter, but cold and refreshing. The second tasted a lot better, and the third was exquisite. A little booze wouldn’t hurt, right? She was celebrating, after all.  
  
They’d been amazing: Hoshino Ai and Suzuki Ichiban, Sasaki Kotaro and Akaba Hayato. Tonight those two had achieved rare musical alchemy, transforming a campy, mediocre 1980s pop song into a tour de force. As Ai, Kotaro’s voice was rich and sultry. She was a femme fatale capable of seducing both women and men. Akaba’s voice was definitely above average. True, he lacked his half-brother’s natural aptitude, but the disparity in vocal talent was more than made up for by how well they harmonized. It had to be the family connection. As expected, Akaba’s guitar playing was flawless. The choreography added energy without detracting any focus from the music. The whole act was brilliant, tacky perfection.  
  
The duo had earned a standing ovation and left the three fangirl judges jumping up and down, hugging each other and squealing with delight. How big a role—if any—that triad’s yaoi loving proclivities played in the boys’ victory, Julie would probably never know. And frankly she didn’t care. Her boys won, and according to her admittedly biased brain, they deserved to win.   
  
She’d been as captivated as every other person in that audience. More so. What she’d felt when she watched Kotaro and Akaba on that stage was not just a distortion caused by the rock star effect. She knew because she’d felt it when she watched them play football on their first evening in New Mexico. She’d felt it every time she watched the Bando Spiders take the field and she felt it every time she watched the Enma Fires take the field. She’d felt it when she and Kotaro were cavorting like rowdy children in the swimming pool on the cruise ship. When he sang to just her on the beach. When she was putting makeup on him earlier today.  
  
She’d felt that feeling so many times, it had just been too faint for her to recognize. Or rather, she hadn’t let herself acknowledge it. Oh, she’d conceded that she might have feelings for the guy, but until tonight she couldn’t admit that it was, in fact, that larger-than-life four-letter word. And it wasn’t just his voice or his kicks. It was all of him. Idiocy included.  
  
 _I love Kotaro_ , she thought, and even though they were only in her head, the words made her flush in a wonderful way. She took another long swig of beer, draining her mug, and thought it again. _I love Kotaro. I love him._  
  
More people had arrived at the impromptu party, teenage friends of the Sullivan kids—some who Julie recognized as Roy’s football teammates—and friends of those friends. Snacks and beverages were being distributed and music set up with the sort of alacrity that young people can always muster when there is fun to be had.   
  
Julie refilled her glass and looked around to see if Kotaro had emerged. It might take him a while to wash off all of that makeup. She had no idea what she was going to say to him, but she wanted to see him, wanted to think those three words in his presence.   
  
“Remember to pace yourself on the beer,” Akaba told her before taking a generous quaff from his own mug. Julie had never actually seen him drink alcohol before; this really was a party.  
  
“Finally I feel like me again.” Kotaro’s voice cut over the thumping rhythm from the stereo and the growing hum of conversations. Clothed in a western shirt, jeans, and cowboy hat, he loped effortlessly on long legs over to where Julie stood. “Is this a smart look for me or what?”  
  
“You look like the Kid,” she teased.  
  
“You saying I have an old man face?” He was trying desperately to frown but failing at it because it was just too damn good a night.  
  
Julie clucked her tongue softly and shook her head. “And just this afternoon you were upset because you thought I implied your face wasn’t manly enough. It’s not your face, it’s the hat. It’s very Kid-esque.”  
  
He took off the hat and set it on the table and immediately whipped out a flip comb from a back pocket of his jeans and tidied up his flattened hair. “I gotta say, I definitely prefer being a man. No offense.”  
  
“None taken,” she said between sips of beer. “But you do make one hell of a good looking lady. You were prettier than me today.”  
  
Kotaro rolled his eyes. “Like that’s even possible.”  
  
Heat that was only partially due to alcohol consumption glowed in Julie’s chest. She was so full of affection for this man right now. “Not a lot of guys would be willing to don a skirt just for the chance to win traveling fare. You may have messed up when you registered us for the talent contest, but you made it right in the end. Like a game-winning field goal at the buzzer. You’re kind of a hero tonight, Kotaro.” She almost said heroine but decided not to bait him further.  
  
“Heh, thanks. It’s no big deal, really.” He wasn’t great at being humble, but at least he was trying.  
  
“Is there anything I can do to show you my appreciation?” she asked. She hadn’t even reached the bottom of her second drink and already she could feel herself growing more flirty, less inhibited. She really was a lightweight when it came to alcohol. When her glass was empty, she would cut herself off, she swore. But damn she felt good. Was it the beer or was it Kotaro?  
  
He considered her question for a moment and then took her free hand in one of his. “Dance with me.”  
  
“Dance?” Music was pulsing through the air, yes, but nobody was dancing; it was still too early for it to have become that kind of party. Before Julie could point that fact out, Kotaro was pulling her towards a more open space on the patio. So she gulped down what was left in her mug and let him lead the way.  
  
The fast electronic song that had been playing ended and a slow and lilting one began just as Kotaro’s hands were drawing her hips in close to his. “I guess it’ll be a slow dance,” he husked in her ear, and the sound of his voice—or maybe it was the tickle of his breath on her skin—sent a ripple of pleasure along her neurons. Through the layers of their clothes she felt the heat of his body pressed against her. “Put your hands around my neck,” he said and she obliged.  
  
As they swayed to the gentle music, she was very aware, not unpleasantly, of his hands on the small of her back.  
  
 _“I bought a ticket to the world, but now I’ve come back again. Why do I find if hard to write the next line? Oh I want the truth to be said.”_  
  
Dancing with Kotaro like this, the rest of the world seemed to fall away. Well, not entirely. The bright half-moon remained, and all the stars The faintly sweet scented breeze rolling off the desert, too. And the little paper lanterns strung like Christmas lights all around the patio area also stayed. But all of the other people faded into the periphery until it felt like the two of them were the only souls in the world.   
  
_“I know this much is true...”_  
  
She loved him. She’d accepted that. And dancing with him, knotted together by their hands, was bliss. But there was still a cloud of uncertainty hovering around her head that she couldn’t ignore: did Kotaro love her? For so many years she had taken his feelings for her for granted and thinking about how insensitive she’d been made her feel awful. But she hadn’t known back then how she really felt. Her stomach did a backflip as she pondered his present feelings for her. After all, she had rejected him, and even though it was only by his own misunderstanding, he still had believed it.  
  
But he hadn’t slept with that Jessica. He said he hadn’t really loved her. So there was still hope. For now, it was enough to dance with him beneath a diamond studded sky.   
  
The song ended and they pulled apart just enough to look at each other without losing the delicious warmth that filled the narrow space between their bodies. The moment the next song started, Kotaro’s face lit up with recognition. “Elvis!” he said, grinning. “Blue Suede Shoes!”  
  
“A great song,” she said, mirroring his zeal more than expressing her own enthusiasm for the song—though it was a classic.  
  
“It was your inspiration for making my bracelet, right?” he asked, brandishing his wrist in front of her face.  
  
“Yeah, it just sort of... came....” She’d started responding before her brain had fully processed what he’d said and when it did her sentence crumbled. The smile he flashed at her was downright arch. “You knew?” she asked as soon as she collected her bearings. “Since when?”  
  
Kotaro shrugged with effortless insouciance. “Since always. Come on, Julie. Did you really think that I’m dumb enough to believe you happened to stumble upon one of the King of Rock and Roll’s accessories just when I needed some serious inspiration?”  
  
She couldn’t refute it. “But... You wore it from that moment on. You got over your performance anxiety because of it. You... you fell off a cruise ship to save it! If you knew it wasn’t special...”  
  
His hand slid under her chin to cup the corner of her jaw while his thumb pressed over her lips, silencing her. “It is special, Julie. On the day that you gave it to me I could see the shadows under your eyes and I recognized the blue suede from that jacket you used to wear everyday in middle school. You stayed up all night to make me a bracelet out of something you had loved and that means a lot more to me than if it really had belonged to Elvis Presley.”  
  
“But if you knew...” Julie’s brain was still trying to sort all the details into a clear picture “Why didn’t you say anything?”  
  
“Because you believed I believed it,” he said. His hands had migrated to her shoulders where they lingered, holding her in his gaze. “How could I spoil that? Knowing that you would create a unique treasure and make up such a stupid story just to help me overcome my anxiety is what finally allowed me to overcome it. Wearing your bracelet each time I sing, just feeling it on my wrist, is all the reminder I need to know you believe in me. I said it before, Julie, your opinion really does mean more to me than anyone else’s.”  
  
That day in her room felt so very far away now, like it could just as easily be a scene remembered from a novel or a movie as a scene from her life. And the idea to present Kotaro a phony good luck charm , which she’d thought was so peerlessly brilliant back then, in retrospect was so hackneyed that it could have been penned by a second-rate sitcom writer. But it had worked, hadn’t it?  
  
“I’m sorry I lied to you, Kotaro,” she said, hoping he couldn’t read her embarrassment on her face.  
  
He just smiled. For perhaps the first time ever he was acting like the cool one. “It was a cute lie, to be fair. And it was probably the only time you’ve ever lied to me about anything.”  
  
Except that “It wasn’t.” She’d only meant to think it but wound up saying the words out loud. It was something she’d been wanting to get off her chest and now was her chance. She didn’t have to worry about breaking up Kotaro and Jessica anymore or about sorting out her own feelings for him. She could finally set the record straight. “At the airport, before you left Japan, you asked me if I could think of any reason why you shouldn’t go and I lied to you.”  
  
His eyebrows lowered and his mouth pursed intently. “What do you mean?”  
  
“I said no. But really I did have a reason. It just wasn’t a very good one. It was a selfish reason so I kept it to myself.”  
  
“What was the reason?” he coaxed. Those strong hot hands of his were on the roam again, smoothing up her neck until his fingers threaded into her hair. “I don’t care if it’s selfish.”  
  
“Because I would miss you, of course,” she said. The way he was touching her was making it harder to think clearly. “But that didn’t seem like a good enough reason to ask you to stay with me. And I would have told you that I would miss you and that you should go anyway but I didn’t want you to feel any guilt for accepting a once in a lifetime opportunity.”  
  
Their bodies leaned back into one another, as if dragged by magnetic force, and she braced herself with her hands against his chest. Her heels lifted off the ground as his hands drew her face closer to his.  
  
He made no mention of confession or rejection, no judgement of her decision. He merely asked, “You really did miss me?”  
  
“Every day you were gone,” she whispered back. Then she closed her eyes and inhaled the soapy scent of his skin, freshly scrubbed of makeup. A sensation as light as the fluttering of a moth’s wings brushed close to her lips, almost touching but not quite. Kotaro’s lips. Her heart hammered. Was he going to kiss her?  
  
“Hey, Kotaro.”  
  
The sound of Akaba’s voice brought the rest of the world hurtling back again—teenagers drinking, dancing, starting to get sloppy and laughing loudly—and effectively aborted the tender moment. No kiss.  
  
Kotaro pulled back with a frustrated growl. “What is it, Bakaba?”   
  
Julie’s eyes opened. Kotaro’s hands were still tangled in her hair and she could hear his heavy breaths. She was breathing pretty intensely, too. Her lips were swollen and aching with thwarted anticipation.   
  
Akaba approached wearing an expression like still water that bore no indication of whether or not he realized that he’d just foiled what very well might have been a kiss about to happen. He was likewise unperturbed by the withering glare Kotaro was shooting him.   
  
“Roy has been looking for you,” Akaba said. “He and some of the guys from his team want to talk to you about kicking.”  
  
He’d said the magic word that placated Kotaro, turning his glower into a grin. But a quick glance back down at Julie made his expression falter. He was visibly torn.   
  
“Go on,” Julie said. She patted his arm lightly and smiled so he knew she wasn’t offended. “If it’s about kicking, I know you need to go.” Her heart-rate was slowing and her blush receding now. Her brain was unfogging and enough of her mental capacity had been restored to realize that this was not the right time to be kissing Kotaro, despite what her body was so ravenously craving.  
  
Kotaro separated from her, but not without hesitation. His hand dragged down her arm as he walked away and her arm stretched out to extend the duration of their physical contact until it was impossible to maintain and their fingertips pulled apart.  
  
“Catch you later, Julie,” he said. And then he turned his head to look where he was going and disappeared into the herd.  
  
When he was gone, Julie’s hand reached up to touch her lips absently.  
  
“Did I interrupt something?”   
  
It was Akaba. How much had he seen?   
“It’s okay,” Julie sighed. “I think I probably needed interrupting. I was starting to get a little bit carried away.” Yeah, she had needed the interruption, but she sure hadn’t wanted it.  
  
Akaba stepped closer and there was something just slightly off about the movements of his body, as if all the screws and springs that operated his joints had been loosened. In his hand was a beer; not the mug he’d been drinking from before, but a green longneck bottle, which made Julie wonder how much he’d already had. He wasn’t acting particularly drunk, though. He looked relaxed, comfortable, and aside from the fact that he was still wearing his black cat ears, he fit right into this scene of youthful indulgence. He was the cool leading man in a college movie.  
  
“So you’re sticking to the plan to not make a move on my brother until after he settles the score with Jessica?”  
  
“I’m trying to,” she said, already shooting him a curious look related to her next comment. “You just used the b-word openly. Aren’t you afraid someone might overhear?”  
  
“Nobody is paying attention to us, Jewels,” he said. Then he extended his hand to her. “Walk with me.” It was neither a request nor a demand; the way he delivered the words it was merely one possibility that he was offering.  
  
She accepted and took hold of his proffered hand. A walk with Akaba was just the thing to clear her head.   
  
For several minutes they said nothing, just strolled at an easy pace, linked hands swinging between them like the clapper of a giant bell. One of the things that Julie admired about Akaba was that he always knew when it was okay to just stay silent. He never felt the need to fill an auditory void with the sound of his voice just because he could—unlike a certain other young man. In the welcome lull, her mind traveled back to the last party she had attended. Her memory of that night was understandably smoggy, but the role Akaba had played survived with minimal damage.  
  
Akaba was her rock, the guy who steadied her when her world started to spin. He was calming ice in contrast to Kotaro’s hot-blooded—hot-headed—fire.  
  
The sounds of the party dimmed as they pulled further away from it and Julie thought of something she wanted to say. “I just realized that I haven’t thanked you yet for taking my place in the contest.”  
  
“No need to thank me, really. It was supposed to be me and Kotaro from the start, anyway. You only got mixed up in it because his heart is bigger than his brain. Besides, technically, he took your place.”  
  
Julie couldn’t help grinning as Hoshino Ai danced within her mind’s eye. “True, you didn’t have to wear a skirt and makeup. But you did come up with the idea, so you are entitled to some of the credit.”   
  
She wanted to thank him for more than just that. But how could she ever express all the gratitude she felt towards him without sounding cloying? All the things Akaba had done on this ridiculous adventure—rescuing her when she got drunk, finding fresh water for all of them on the island, sharing his past with her, even this private walk—were just the sorts of things Akaba was naturally inclined to do. They were no big deal to him so it would only make her look silly to gush about how much they meant to her.  
  
They kept walking and soon the sound of music began to swell in front of them as they approached the party from the other side. Their circuit around the ranch house was nearly complete. If Julie was going to say something, it would have to be soon. She glanced over at Akaba, his cat ears pert as if they were listening to the thrumming song.  
  
 _“Every time I see you falling, I get down on my knees and pray. I’m waiting for the final moment, to say the words that I can’t say.”_  
  
For a cool guy like him, she could keep it simple. “Thank you, Hayato. For everything.”   
  
Akaba suddenly stopped dead in his tracks but still held fast to Julie’s hand, anchoring her. “What did you just say?” he uttered.  
  
“I just said thank you.” She turned to face him because his voice had sounded strange and his eyes, filled with moonlight, gazed back at her with blazing intensity. Who knew grey could burn more brightly than red?  
  
“My name,” he said in a voice soft as velvet. “You called me by my name.”  
  
His reaction was so unexpectedly strong that Julie was momentarily rendered too stunned to respond. “Well, after everything we’ve been through,” she said, feeling his stare on her as if it were a tangible thing with weight and warmth. “I thought it was about time I started to call you by your name.”  
  
“Say is again,” he said, almost pleadingly. His grip on her hand tightened and he pulled her closer to him, as close as she’d been to Kotaro when she’d danced with him. “Say my name, Julie.”  
  
“Hayato.” She released the name in a single breath.   
  
Akaba reached out his hand and touched her lips with the very tips of his fingers, just as she’d done after Kotaro didn’t kiss her. An instant later she was folded into his strong arms, held so closely against him that she couldn’t distinguish his heartbeat from her own. Both were galloping.   
  
“Again,” he whispered into her hair. “Again.”   
  
Julie’s brain was overwhelmed by it all—the smell of him, the sound of his voice and the feel of his body pressed to hers, the throb of her blood in her arteries and the gathering heat in her belly. Unable to form any more lucid response, she complied with his request. “Hayato. Hayato.” It tasted strange and wonderful on her tongue.  
  
And she’d thought a walk with Akaba would calm her down.  
  



	15. Chapter 15

 

Track 15: Love is a Battlefield

* * *

  
  
“It shouldn’t take this long to use the bathroom. Where is he? The bus is supposed to leave in three minutes.” Julie was squirming in her seat, her sweaty palms chaffing up and down her thighs.  
  
To her right, Akaba sat as still as a statue with his arms crossed over his chest. If he was worried, he wasn’t letting it show. “He is cutting it pretty close. But if he said he’ll make it, you know he will.”  
  
She rolled back her head and took in a deep, calming breath. “I know. I know,” she sighed. “I guess I need to relax. Kotaro is no genius but he is reliable.”  
  
“Yeah, he always comes through in the end,” said Akaba. “But he sure loves to cause a lot of unnecessary stress in the process. Did I tell you that when we left Japan, he just barely made it back to the airplane after he went out to confess to you? The flight attendant almost refused to let him board but he started yelling and making such a scene she let him on to shut him up.”  
  
The story reaffirmed Julie’s anxiety rather than assuaged it and made her wonder what Akaba’s desired effect in telling it was. Her eyes kept jumping between the front of the bus and the empty seat on her left. Though she was prepared to deny it if he asked, she was avoiding looking at Akaba. Hayato—she intended to keep calling him by his first name and she would have to start thinking of him as such.  
  
This was the longest she had been alone with him since the night of the talent contest.  
  
That had been nearly a week ago. It was now Saturday, the day of the TV special, two minutes before seven in the morning, and they were at the very back of a Greyhound bus in Washington D.C., the capitol city of the United States. Kotaro had gone across the street to a large store with huge red bullseye as its logo, seeking a bathroom, but over fifteen minutes had passed since he left and it was getting harder not to worry about him.  
  
“What if something happened to him? Maybe somebody recognized him. If that happens...”  
  
“The jig would be up,” Akaba calmly finished. “But I don’t think that’s very likely.”  
  
Julie suspected that he was exaggerating his unconcern to help ease her mind, but with Akaba it was nearly impossible to tell.  
  
They’d taken some efforts to disguise themselves. Akaba had kept his hair black since the contest and Julie had dyed hers an inconspicuous brown that was close to her natural shade. No amount of reasoning or pleading could have convinced Kotaro to change his hair color so the other two didn’t even bother trying. He had, however, consented to put his usual spiked do, which he’d been sporting since grade school, on temporary hiatus. But the compulsion to tease up his flat hair was apparently so strong that he had to cover it with a fedora. It was not a bad look on him, Julie had to confess. Akaba had also exchanged his usual sunglasses with reading glasses, another all too appealing alteration.  
  
These were just the most basic precautionary measures. The actual importance of concealing their appearances remained unknown, not just because of their relative obscurity—they had one hit song in a major ad campaign, but most Americans wouldn’t know their names or faces—but also because of a strange discovery they’d made when they consulted the World Wide Web from Molly’s computer.  
  
The first thing they’d searched for online was news about their disappearance; they wanted to know what kind of search efforts were being made so they could at least make an informed guess as to how their family and friends might be reacting to the incident. But there was no indication that a search was going on. There weren’t even any reports of them going missing from the cruise. The story circulating online was that Daddy Long Legs had cancelled their TV appearance and the remainder of their tour because their singer, Kotaro, had come down with a terrible case of laryngitis. The band’s website now corroborated the story, having deleted their previous update and blamed it on a hacker.  
  
Some party was suppressing the truth, to their benefit, and the prime suspect was a pointy-eared devil. Of course, Hiruma wouldn’t do such a thing for any altruistic purpose. This was all going onto a steadily rising bill that was definitely better not to think about.  
  
At least their families didn’t think they were dead. And they could move about the country with a bit more comfort now. But that didn’t mean it was all smooth sailing. Without any form of identification, traveling by commercial airline was out of the question. They’d come to Washington in the cargo hold of a plane delivering a rush shipment of King Mukuro Pineapple Salsa to the White House. It might have been serendipity that Donald Obaman was holding a huge party before returning to Notre Dame for his senior year and happened to love this particular condiment. More likely, Hiruma had something to do with it. Their debt kept growing.  
  
But whatever the reason was, be it kismet or Hiruma, things had worked out neatly in the end. After subtracting for bus tickets, clothes, and a couple of prepaid cellphones, they didn’t have enough money left to spend more than one night in New York City, so it was okay that they had to wait for a flight out of New Mexico. As long as they knew what they were doing, they only needed to be in the Big Apple in time for Jessica Coburn’s TV appearance.  
  
The problem was that after a week of trying to formulate a plan, they still only had a vague idea of what they were doing. Akaba had used photographs he found on Jessica’s blog of the view from her balcony to determine where she was staying and booked them a room on the same floor of the same hotel for one day and one night. They all agreed that they needed some solid evidence before leveling accusations at the woman on live national television. The case had to be ironclad, irrefutable. But they had no idea where they were going to get it from or how. They were diving into a shark tank, putting themselves dangerously close to Jessica in order to snoop around for any information that could be used against her.  
  
Their failure to come up with a more concrete plan did not mean that their last week on the ranch had been wasted, though. The guys had gotten to play football with Roy and his gang a couple more times, which helped Kotaro to regain a bit of manly pride after his foray into crossdressing. For their help in winning those games, Roy insisted that he would take on extra work to personally pay off the hundred-dollar entrance fee and the cost of costumes and makeup they’d bought for the contest. Akaba didn’t even protest; they needed the money for New York.  
  
Julie also had another problem on her hands. A major one.  
  
That night after the contest, she thought she had finally gotten her feelings figured out; she realized that she was in love with Kotaro and was even prepared to put her heart on the line and confess to him once Jessica was officially out of their lives. But all her certainty evaporated when she was pinioned in Akaba’s embrace. She had no right getting palpitations from him when she loved Kotaro, but there was no denying her reaction or the difficult truth it pointed at. Her feelings for Akaba were not merely platonic, though she wasn’t yet sure how much further they went.  
  
So for the past week she’d been doing everything in her power to not have to deal with this dilemma or even think about it and one such effort was to avoid being alone with just Kotaro or just Akaba for any length of time. Love could be a priority once they got back to Japan. Right now they needed to be a cohesive unit without any potentially divisive issues between them.  
  
Of course, telling herself that she wouldn’t think about her conflicted heart and actually not thinking about it were two very different things. No matter how busy she tried to make herself, her brain still found the time to remind her that she had feelings for two men, both of whom showed at least some indication of possibly returning those feelings.  
  
Featuring strongly in her thoughts was Sasaki Koji, Kotaro’s dad and Hayato’s biological father. He had loved two people and if he hadn’t, the two men that Julie was torn over would not exist. But Sasaki Koji didn’t get to be with both women he loved. In the end, the only way he could be with either was to cut the other one out of his life completely. If it came down to that, Julie didn’t know what she would do.  
  
And maybe she didn’t really love both of them in that way. Maybe her subconscious was trying to convince her that Akaba was more than a friend because she was afraid of what might happen if she told Kotaro that she loved him and she needed a reason not to take the risk.  
  
Then again, the tight, hot sensation she got in her stomach when she ventured a quick glance at Hayato, sure didn’t feel like a trick of her subconscious.  
  
The bus lurched and panic struck Julie like a bolt of lightning. But before they actually started to move, she heard a familiar voice yelling in rough English.  
  
“Wait! Stop! I need on this bus!”  
  
The bus driver let Kotaro board, but not without treating him to a good long admonishing glare that extinguished the victorious smirk he’d arrived with. By the time he slunk back to his empty seat, though, it was mostly restored. He had a plastic bag covered in bullseye logos in his hand. “See, I told you I’d make it back on time,” he said, plopping down next to Julie. “It took a bit longer than I thought. There was a long line at the register.”  
  
Julie was massaging her forehead with her fingertips to knead out the lingering stress. “Register? I thought you were just going to the bathroom. You know, you seriously could have gotten left behind, Kotaro.”  
  
“I could have, but I didn’t. And that’s all that matters. I saw this in the store and had to buy it. Here.” He sounded rather cheerful up until the last word, which had a tiny grudging edge to it, and as he said it, he passed the plastic bag over Julie’s lap and into Akaba’s.  
  
Akaba upended the bag and a box the size of a dictionary tumbled out with a soft thump. He picked it up and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose to inspect the packaging. “The Complete Discography of Elvis Presley. Wow, this is a really nice set. Kotaro, how much did this cost?”  
  
Kotaro was slightly hunched in his seat, shoulders slightly raised. When he spoke he kept his eyes forward. “Don’t worry about it. It didn’t come from our New York money. I got it on my own.”  
  
“Got it on your own?” Julie asked, already fearing his answer. “How exactly?”  
  
“I, uh, sold the rights to all the Hoshino Ai photos,” he mumbled. “Don’t worry, the buyer promised not to reveal my real identity.”  
  
Akaba was as perplexed as Julie. “Who would pay for those photos?”  
  
“Er, it was Molly, actually,” Kotaro admitted.  
  
“You sold photos of yourself in drag to a boy-crazy fourteen-year old girl just to buy this?” Akaba was leaning out from his seat, body turned so he could look at Kotaro, who was looking pointedly away still. “Why?”  
  
“I’m just trying to improve your ‘musical sense,’ as you so un-smartly call it. You do the same to me, pushing your stupid tastes on me. Enjoy it.”  
  
So that’s what it was. Julie, who was caught in the middle, sank in her seat with a smile. This was five years of birthday presents in one boxed set. Stupid Kotaro couldn’t just tell Akaba that, though. Still, it made her love him more. What had caused this change of heart? Was Kotaro growing up?  
  
She looked to her right. Akaba was staring down at the box, holding it in his hands. No questions about it, he was touched. “Thanks, Kotaro,” he said quietly. Cool as he was, Akaba Hayato still had his soft spots. It made Julie love him more.  
  
The bus pulled away from the Greyhound station, lumbering at first until it was out on open road. A five-hour ride still separated the trio from New York City, and while they all knew that they should be fervently discussing how they would wring evidence from Jessica, they rode in silence. Julie could only guess what was on Kotaro and Hayato’s minds, but what was on hers was them.

 

  
...

  
  
“Jewels? Hey Jewels, wake up. We’re here.” Akaba’s voice was a sweet whisper in her ear.  
  
“Mnnnn...” She let out a sleepy murmur as she opened her eyes and flexed her stiff joints. Yellow light from the rising sun was slanting through the bus windows, illuminating the outline of Akaba’s silhouette in front of her—he glowed like and angel. “Hayato,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. “Are we in New York?”  
  
“Not yet,” he said, extending his hand to her. “We’re at a rest stop in Delaware. Kotaro went to get some snacks. I was going to let you sleep but I thought you might regret it later if you woke up and had to use the bathroom.”  
  
She grabbed his hand and hoisted herself up, legs wobbling beneath her. “Thanks.”  
  
It felt good to stretch out her limbs and walk around after a couple of hours of sleeping in a bus seat. She couldn’t even remember falling asleep so it must have happened fast, which was a little bit embarrassing. Akaba didn’t say a word about it, of course, just walked alongside her in the grassy area outside of the rest stop. She was alone with him again and she could feel her heartbeat in her stomach.  
  
“I’m glad we can walk together, just the two of us, even if it is just for a little while,” he said after a minute of two. “I’ve been wanting to get you alone all week, but I kind of got the impression you were trying to avoid that. I guess I brought it on myself with the way I acted last Saturday night, pulling you into my arms like that.”  
  
 _Ah, of course_ , Julie thought. _He regrets hugging me like that and now he’s trying to apologize. Well, I guess if he doesn’t like me in that way it doesn’t really matter that I like him. I’ll just try to think of him as a brother. Yeah... a brother._  
  
The thought made the center of her chest ache, but she had to act like she was cool with it. “Oh, it’s okay. We’d both had some beers, and it was a celebration... I can pretend it didn’t happen, if that’s what you want.” She chuckled nervously and the back of her neck prickled with perspiration.  
  
Akaba stopped suddenly and turned her around by the shoulders to face him. His eyes bore into her, an odd hint of distress flickering up from their dark depths. “That’s not what I want at all Jewels. I didn’t have so much to drink that night that I didn’t know what I was doing. But I can only speak for myself. Do you want to pretend it didn’t happen? Because I don’t know if I can. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since that night. But the way I feel about you, Julie, I’ve felt it for a long time.”  
  
Her heartbeat now filled her entire body, like heavy footsteps in an empty hallway. “What are you saying, Hayato?”  
  
His eyes closed and he smiled, savoring. “You make my name sound like a song. I love you, Jewels. You make me real. That is what I am talking about. I wanted to wait to tell you this, until things were less crazy. But seeing you with Kotaro, growing closer together, I have to take my chance while I still have one. I held back the first time around, for his sake, but I won’t make that mistake again.”  
  
Before she could respond, Hayato swept her into his arms and kissed her on the mouth. Her arms unfurled at her sides, reacting to the shock, before reaching behind his head and pulling him harder against her mouth. It was instinctual, primitive. Liquid fire pumped through her arteries to every corner of her body. He overwhelmed her senses and she didn’t want to break apart, even to breath.  
  
“You rat bastard! What the hell are you doing?”  
  
Julie jerked away from Akaba, panting, and twisted towards the sound of the all-too-familiar voice. “Kotaro,” she breathed. “How long have you...”  
  
But he didn’t let her finish the question before lunging at Akaba and grabbing the front of his shirt. “What were you doing to Julie, asshole? Huh? What kind of un-smart stunt are you trying to pull?”  
  
“Whoa, calm down,” Akaba said, putting his hands up in a gesture of non-aggression. “Let’s talk about this like adults, Kotaro. Yes, I kissed Julie. I’m sorry you had to find out about it like this, but I’m in love with her. I never meant to hurt you, Kotaro.”  
  
“Bullshit!” Kotaro roared, shaking Akaba by his shirt. His forehead was pressed against his rival’s, his teeth bared. “You could have any girl you wanted and you just happened to choose her? You expect me to believe that? Really?”  
  
“Believe what you will, it’s the truth, Kotaro.”  
  
But Kotaro would not be pacified. “You know what’s unbelievable? You! You are unbelievable, Bakaba! I thought you were my friend! I thought you were someone I could trust! But you had to go after the one girl in the entire world that would hurt me the most for you to go after!”  
  
“That’s enough!” Akaba snapped, angrier than Julie had thought him capable of. His was a contained fury; he kept his shoulders squared and breathed in long drags of air to cool the fire inside him. “How dare you criticize me for falling in love with her? You’re the one who hooked up with the first horny fangirl he met on tour. And why? Because your first love rejected you? Except she didn’t. Julie never rejected you because you couldn’t even confess to her properly. You made a half-assed confession, misinterpreted her response, and quickly moved on with that big-breasted bimbo. How much could you possibly care about Julie? You had your chance and you fucked it up.”  
  
“Shut up you piece of shit!” Kotaro barked back. “Just shut the fuck up!” He didn’t have any more cohesive argument.  
  
The confrontation unfolded in rapid back-and-forth jabs, so quickly that Julie couldn’t find an opening until now, while Kotaro floundered. “Stop it you two,” she said firmly, wedging herself between them and pushing them apart as best she could with both arms—their moment of shock over her interference was likely the only reason she was able to wrench apart the two male athletes. “Stop fighting. Now.”  
  
“He started it!” snarled Kotaro, like a dog straining against a short leash. “He kissed you!”  
  
“Not as a slight against you,” Akaba bitterly retorted. “Julie isn’t your girlfriend. She can kiss whoever she wants.”  
  
“Oh, so she wanted this? You’re saying she came on to you?”  
  
“STOP IT!” This time Julie shouted. Some strangers in the vicinity stopped and turned their heads to goggle at the three Japanese tourists fighting, but she didn’t care. “I will not have you two fight over me! This is stupid! You’re acting like children!”  
  
Simultaneous with her accusation of immaturity, Kotaro jutted his lip in the most childish expression he could muster. “Well why don’t you just end this here and now then, Julie? Just tell us which one of us you like better. Who’re you gonna choose, your best friend who has loved you for years or a guitar-obsessed, overthinking, fuu~ing jerk?”  
  
“It is a tough decision,” Akaba said smugly. “The man who never gave up his hope of being with you or the guy who put his tongue in Jessica Coburn’s mouth? Who will you choose?”  
  
The situation wasn’t getting any better. Kotaro and Hayato were shooting vitriol at each other from their eyes like hot sparks. There was only one way for Julie to answer, the only solution. “I choose neither! I refuse to come between the two of you! Look at you fighting like this! You’re brothers!”  
  
All the anger fell from the two men’s faces and was immediately replaced by utter shock, though their reasons were different. Crap. She’d spilled the beans.  
  
“Brothers?” Kotaro snorted. “What the hell are you talking about? A guy that un-smart could never be my brother.”  
  
Julie opened her mouth to tell him that it wasn’t true, that she’d meant they were like brothers, but she couldn’t even form a single word. Desperately, her eyes darted to Akaba, imploring him to say what she couldn’t. Akaba’s expression had turned to steel.  
  
“It’s true,” he said. “I was born from an extramarital affair your father, Sasaki Koji, had with my mother.”  
  
Kotaro looked like he just found out his dog died; anger, and hurt, and disbelief combined on his features to agonizing effect. “My dad... wouldn’t do such a thing,” he uttered, but he didn’t even sound like he believed his own words. “How could he... And you?” He turned his eyes on Julie and she could see tears on the rims of his eyelids. “It’s true, isn’t it? And you knew about it? But you kept it from me...”  
  
She stared helplessly at Kotaro’s devastated face and her heart felt like it was being pierced by something hot and sharp that just kept burrowing deeper and deeper. “I’m so sorry,” she said, voice squeaking. “I didn’t feel like it was my secret to tell...”  
  
“But you told it anyway.” Akaba’s voice was wind over ice, his eyes dark pits. “I never should have shared my secret with you, Julie. Now come on. Let’s all just go back to the bus.” He turned his back on her and started walking away.  
  
So did Kotaro.  
  
Neither looked back at her or said another word.  
  
“Wait!” she cried. Her voice was smaller than a mouse’s. “Kotaro! Hayato! I didn’t mean to...” Her sentence was severed by the whoosh of a vehicle speeding away. It was their bus, leaving the rest stop without them on board. They’d fought until they were no longer speaking to each other and while doing so they’d lost track of time and been stranded at a rest stop in Delaware.  
  
It was hopeless. The situation was hopeless. Julie couldn’t bear it anymore and fell to her knees, letting frustrated sobs shake her whole body.  
  
No, something else was shaking her.  
  
“Wake up, Julie, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up.” It was Kotaro’s voice.  
  
With a gasp and a jolt, she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was his face, watching her with gentle concern. They were still on the bus. “I... was asleep,” she panted. Relief flowed over her like cool water. It was a dream, just a horrible, disturbing dream. She took a few more deep breaths and straightened up in her seat. “Are we almost to the rest stop?”  
  
“Uh, actually we were already at the rest stop hours ago,” Kotaro said. “We would have woken you up, but you looked so sweet and peaceful, neither of us had the heart. Right, Akaba?”  
  
They were still on friendly terms. Good.  
  
“You’re very cute when you sleep,” said Akaba. His tone wasn’t excessively warm, but compared to how he’d sounded in her nightmare, it was a beam of summer sunshine. “Well, you were cute up until you started moaning and thrashing.”  
  
“Moaning and thrashing?” she asked with trepidation. Falling asleep on the bus was embarrassing enough, but acting weird in her sleep was even worse.  
  
“Yeah,” Kotaro said. “You were telling some brothers to stop fighting.”  
  
Eep! Of course that is the part that she would say out loud. Time to think up a lie, which was never one of her best talents. “Oh, right. I must have been dreaming about that drama that aired last spring. You know, the one about the two brothers—well, half-brothers technically—who are in a band together but one of them doesn’t know that they’re brothers. It was very stirring.”  
  
Kotaro scrutinized her face, digesting her story slowly. He’d never decipher the subtext, but would Akaba say anything? “I think I may have seen that one,” Kotaro said. “Was that the one where the brothers were both in love with the same girl and it ruined their relationship?”  
  
“Nope. Definitely not. Must have it mixed up with another drama. No girl in this one.”  
  
Julie’s nervous insistence must not have struck Kotaro as strange because he didn’t ask any followup questions, just shrugged and said, “I guess I missed that one then.”  
  
With the crisis apparently averted, she tried to relax and make herself comfortable for the rest of the trip. More than anything she wanted to banish that dream from her brain, expunge it from her memory, but it didn’t want to go away. How self-absorbed was she that her sub-conscious had conjured up a dream about two men fighting over her? Or maybe that was the message she was supposed to get: she needed to put their feelings and desires ahead of her own, even if it meant that she would only ever be their friend.  
  
Her stomach interrupted her thoughts with a loud growl.  
  
“You hungry?” Kotaro asked. “Here, I saved this for you.” He handed her a torn cellophane bag containing a round, pink confection the size of a tennis ball. It was one of those cakes they’d seen in the convenience store in New Mexico—the ones that he’d thought had looked like boobs—and judging from the crumbs on his shirt, he’d already eaten its twin.  
  
“Thanks,” she told him. She took a bite and it was heavenly. With her free hand she reached over and patted his knee as a sign of gratitude, and even that innocent contact sent a small rush of excitement through her nerves.  
  
“That any good?” Akaba asked curiously.  
  
After swallowing what was in her mouth she answered, “Mmm, yeah. Wanna taste?” She offered the cake to him, but rather than taking it with his hand, Akaba just leaned down and took a bite, as if she were feeding it to him.  
  
He chewed and swallowed and thought for a moment. “Not bad,” he judged.  
  
“Don’t just eat out of her hands,” Kotaro grumbled. “It’s rude.”  
  
He was jealous of something so completely innocuous. Julie wondered how he would react if he knew that Akaba had kissed her in her dream and as soon as the thought occurred to her, that detail replayed in her brain. The physical sensations involved in that kiss had lost some sharpness upon her return to the waking world, but their intensity remained with her. She had never been kissed like that in real life. She wanted to, very much so, but in her life thus far that kind of passion had been reserved for dramas and shoujo manga.  
  
It was dream Hayato who had kissed her, though. The real thing would never kiss her, even if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to. Probably.  
  
“Hey, check it out! It’s the New York City skyline!” Kotaro was leaning out of his seat excitedly, trying for a better view through the window while obstructing it for Julie and Akaba.  
  
“Fuu~ Down in front,” said Akaba flatly.  
  
Kotaro pulled back. “Right, right, sorry.”  
  
The guys had been to New York City before when they participated in the Youth World Cup, but this was Julie’s first real life glimpse of the Big Apple. It was beautiful, even from a distance. All the base components were the same as any other metropolis—the tall buildings stretching up into the pale blue sky were fundamentally no different than those in Tokyo or in Washington, where they’d just come from. It could have been any major city, but the fact that it was New York somehow imbued it with a sense of magic, like anything might be possible once they reached it.  
  
The bus slowed as it rolled down an incline and went right into a hairpin turn. Through the windows, they could see the tollbooths and the gaping cavern in front of them.  
  
“Well, looks like we’ve reached the Lincoln Tunnel,” Akaba observed. “On the other end is Manhattan.”  
  
Julie tried to hold her breath through the tunnel but it just kept on going without end and she eventually had to gasp for a lungful. At last—after several more breaths—they emerged from the tunnel and into the warm, dazzling heart of New York City.  
  
With their meager backpacks in tow, the trio set off on foot for the journey from the bus station to their hotel; no sense wasting their dwindling cash supply on a cab when they only had less than ten blocks to travel. This was a welcome course of action for Julie because one route to the hotel was a straight shot up 7th Avenue, also known as Fashion Avenue. True, this trip to New York was for business of a sort, but there was no reason she couldn’t have a bit of pleasure as well while she was in the thick of it. And, god willing, one day fashion would be her business, so any window gazing for inspiration was time well spent.  
  
“Ooh! That type of collar on the style of jacket from that other boutique—the green one—but without the pockets. What do you think? Maybe pair it with a floral print dress with an empire waist, ruffles on the edge...” She didn’t pause after questions because she knew that the guys had no opinions. Really she was talking to herself. Each storefront they passed was laden with shoes, and dresses, and purses, and blouses. Her brain was churning with ideas.  
  
“You’re getting into creative frenzy mode,” Kotaro said, amusement in his tone. “It’s a good thing you bought a new sketchbook this week, Julie. You’ll fill the whole thing up tonight after we finish dealing with Jessica.”  
  
Oh right, Jessica. They still had to take care of that. But, as he had said, after tonight it would all be over. Whether they succeeded in finding evidence or not, they were still planning to sneak onto the set of that TV special and confront her.  
  
And afterwards, Julie would have time to sketch out all of the designs that were developing in her brain. Strangely, every single garment and accessory she thought up, she imagined being modeled by Hoshino Ai. Had she found her one true muse at last?  
  
Too soon, the hotel appeared before them, a towering reminder of what still had to be accomplished.  
  
They needed to be stealthy now, on high alert for Jessica Coburn. They’d made it too far to get busted now. But they had to act naturally while being cautious, so as not to stand out, and one member of their party was having some difficulty with that.  
  
“Relax, Kotaro,” Julie whispered. “You’re walking funny. It looks suspicious.”  
  
He rolled his shoulders and adopted a looser posture. “Sorry. Sorry. I’m feeling anxious is all. I mean, she could be in this building right now. That woman. And if I see her, I’m afraid of what I might do. Afraid I won’t be able to hold my tongue.”  
  
“Just breathe,” Julie said, rubbing his shoulder. “Try not to think about her at all. Just clear your mind of all Jessica related thoughts until we are safe in our room and I will keep lookout.”  
  
That bolstered him a bit, though there was still a tinge of annoyance in his voice when he spoke. “It’s kind of weird to think about her anyways. She was my girlfriend for weeks. I was really into her and we were always making out and stuff. But when I look back on it now it’s like I was under a spell of hypnotized or something. When you showed up...”  
  
“Better put a lid on it,” Akaba said as he pushed the door open and held it for the other two. “We’re now entering enemy waters.”  
  
Kotaro just swallowed nervously and bobbed his head. Julie kind of wished she could have heard the rest of what he had to say.  
  
The hotel lobby was as much a work of art as the designer fashions she’d ogled en route. A stark black and white color scheme gave the space a classic, albeit somewhat intimidating aura. Beneath their feet, the black marble floor was inlaid with little flecks of platinum that caught the light from high, high windows and sparkled like stardust. Pure white calla lilies—the real kind, not silk or plastic—sprouted, magazine photo perfect, from porcelain planters. Even the concierge and bellhops looked like beautiful art deco illustrations.  
  
Possessing the best English skills of the three of them, Akaba took the lead at the check-in counter. They didn’t have any form of picture identification, only a printed out reservation confirmation, so they anticipated having to jump through some hoops.  
  
The concierge was a young, attractive blonde woman in a black blazer and pencil skirt that were both neat as a pin. On her chest was a badge that said ‘Elena.’ Her cheeks tinged noticeably pink when Akaba flashed her a cool smile. “Checking in?” she asked.  
  
Akaba nodded and slid the confirmation slip across the marble countertop.  
  
Elena executed a few rapid-fire transactions on the computer’s keyboard and her face scrunched up as she read the results it returned to her.  
  
“There a problem?” Akaba asked.  
  
“Not exactly,” she said. “You reserved a room on the eighth floor, but it seems another guest on that floor was very insistent upon needing that one as well.”  
  
Three guesses which guest it was.  
  
Akaba raised an eyebrow. “So where does that leave us?’  
  
“Since you were only registered for one night, we went ahead and moved you to a balcony suite on the seventh floor.” Elena flashed him a pleasing smile. “Trust me, you’ll love it. It’s three times the size of the room you reserved and it has a huge balcony and a jacuzzi big enough for two.” She seemed to have just now noticed there were three of them and looked down awkwardly. “Er, that is to say, if you’re only going to spend one night here, this is the suite to spend it in. And the upgrade is gratis, of course.”  
  
“Excellent. My humblest thanks, Miss Elena,” Akaba said, making her blush furiously. Then he went about filling out the required paperwork.  
  
“I think I’ll go find the ladies’ room before we go up,” Julie said. She gave Kotaro a soft nudge with her elbow and whispered in his ear. “Just stick with Akaba and act natural.”  
  
Following the guidance of a sign, she sought the ladies’ room down a corridor in the corner of the lobby and it was in that dim, narrow hallway that she heard a chillingly familiar voice speaking Japanese. Quick as a cat and silent as a shadow, Julie ducked behind a decorative column, heart pounding like hoofbeats in her chest.  
  
Jessica was tucked into a small alcove, talking to someone on a cellphone. Obviously, she didn’t think anyone else was in the vicinity, let alone someone who speaks Japanese.  
  
“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing,” she huffed. “It’s better for me if there isn’t an investigation, after all. But it’s fucking suspicious! Somebody is covering up what happened on that cruise. But who? And why? Well fuck it. I’m not going to worry about it yet. If everyone knew that moron and the redhead and the bitch were floating dead somewhere in the Pacific they’d probably be too upset to enjoy my stunning performance tonight.”  
  
In her hiding spot, Julie clenched her teeth, silently seething. How dare that woman be so callous! Not caring about their deaths? Calling Kotaro a moron? _Only I get to call him that!_ But at least she had no idea that the trio were alive and right under her nose.  
  
“I’ve got it covered!” Jessica snapped into the cellphone. “Even if they do know that those losers went overboard they’ll have no way of connecting it to me. I stole the security tape that shows me at the scene. Of course it’s safe! Do you think I’m a fucking idiot? I’ve got it in my suitcase in the hotel room.” Her anger cooled and her voice became haughty. “Yeah, the suite is incredible. And the best part is, it’s all on that dumbass’s credit card.”  
  
Julie’s hands curled into fists at her side.  
  
Jessica’s tone shifted again to a seductive hiss. “Mmm, yes. You’re right, we haven’t fucked in weeks. I think I can fit you in before my interview at two. Meet me at my suite in twenty minutes, but enjoy it while you can because my star is on the rise and after tonight you’ll have to wait in line.”  
  
The call ended and Jessica swayed on her high heels, confident as a queen, as she walked out of the corridor with her long black ponytail swishing behind her. Julie waited until it was safe to emerge from her crevice and followed on tiptoes. She watched as Jessica walked straight to the elevator without so much as a glance at the check-in counter where Kotaro and Akaba lingered.  
  
Heart still racing from the adrenaline rush, she rejoined her boys right as they were finishing up. Once they were on the elevator, completely alone, she finally was able to talk. She was so charged her voice came out as a pant. “I saw Jessica. Don’t worry, she didn’t see me. Or you. But I overheard her talking to someone on the phone. I think I know where we can find the evidence we need.”  



End file.
